Church Diagnostic; prayer
Acts 2: 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this [l]perverse generation.” 41 Then those who [m]gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ [n]doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and [o]sold their possessions and goods, and divided[p] them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added [q]to the church daily those who were being saved.
“church diagnosis” for our church. We’ve asked the question a couple of times already; “What is a church supposed to be doing?” And this passage answers that questions by telling us what the first church, the church closest to the source, was actively doing. And it was pretty simple, they were dedicated to knowing and living God’s Word. They were spending lots of time and energy in prayer. They were getting together with other believers for fellowship and the Lord’s table. And they were taking the message of Christ out to their world.
And as a result, “the Lord was adding daily to their numbers.” That’s the basic framework for what a church is supposed to be doing. Their church existed at a very basic level. Relationship with the Lord, with each other, and with the world. There’s something beautiful here. The purpose of the church doesn’t concern building buildings, paying bills, organizing programs, planning services; just 3 relationships.
By way of introducing the message today, I wanted to tell you the story of a Southern Baptist missionary named Ying Chai and his wife Grace. During the course of these 40 days of prayer I was reading some books. One of them was about discipleship and it was entitled “Training for Trainers” written by a missionary to China named Ying Chai. The book was first printed in 2018 and the events it describes began in October of 2000. I would call what the movement it describes a modern Acts 2 movement.
The Forward to his book says, “If you knew there was someone God had used to bring two million souls to salvation in Jesus Christ, and as a result new believers were baptized into 150,000 new churches in 10 years time, wouldn’t you want to know more?”
This is Ying Chai’s story in a nutshell. He and his wife have been missionaries in Asia for 21 years for the International mission board of the Southern Baptist Convention. In the beginning of their missionary work, in Hong Kong, the two of them were able to lead almost 200 people to faith in Christ and start 3 new churches in 5 years- time.
But in 2000 they were going to be sent to a neighboring country. So, in October of 2000 they were sent to some training in Singapore. At that training they were encouraged to develop a 3-year plan for reaching people for Christ and starting new churches. This was a discouraging task at first because in researching their new mission assignment they discovered that the new region they were going to had over 20 million unsaved people in it. And so, their bringing 200 to Christ, and starting 3 churches seemed pitifully inadequate.
So, after much prayer and Bible study, they developed a plan to lead 18,000 people to Christ in 3 years and begin 200 new churches. They turned in their plan at the training and watched the disbelief in the eyes of the training director.
But they implemented the plan anyway. What was the plan? Well, the main element that was different was that they continued witnessing to everyone, but now, when someone accepted Christ, they immediately began meeting with them weekly for discipleship. And immediately they trained them to write down their conversion story and tell 5 people that week. They showed them how to tell people about Jesus and invite them to become His disciples. And this is key. They told them not to bring those converts back to their group. They taught those individuals how to teach them the first lessons of Christian growth.
The long and short of it was this. Ying and Grace Kai worked on teaching people, training them to teach those who they lead to faith, who would then teach them to train those that they lead to faith.
It was a modern-day Acts 2 movement. No church buildings. The original missionaries just witness and then pass on lessons to other who pass them on to the next group. Now there are a lot of details I’m leaving out. Ying and Grace Chai originally in 2000, proposed that they might reach 18,000 for Christ and start 200 new churches in 3 years. Instead they have kept records of close to 2 million coming to faith, and 150,000 churches started in 10 years.
Now this is a miraculous story. And after a few weeks of pondering, I think there are 3 key elements that account for the phenomenal success of this movement; 1st is God’s Sovereign timing. I really think China is a country that is ripe for a spiritual harvest. They’ve had multiple generations of poverty and oppression. And more than that they’ve had multiple generations of Spiritual darkness.
The second element is prayer. Ying and his wife spend two hours every day in prayer for the lost of China. And the third element is that they took seriously the command to make disciples. They are not just making converts, they are immediately training them to be disciples who make disciples.
I wanted to tell you that story, and it is ongoing, because I want you to catch a vision. The vision is that God is still in the business of saving souls.
Well, we are going to get to that in upcoming sermons. But for today, we are considering the place of prayer in the life of a church and a believer. And we are considering it in terms of a diagnostic. How do we measure up?
Last week we looked at Acts 2:42. It says; “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
And I shared with you what a church is supposed to be; a people who have a vital relationship with Jesus Christ—love God. That’s where it begins. They are dedicated to the Word of God and prayer. There’s something very important here. The immediate task of the church is not evangelism. The immediate task of the church is dedication to the Word of God, and to prayer. Your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ is foremost. You have to have the proper content.
Evangelism is the last thing on the list. After we read that they were continually devoted to the apostles teaching and to prayer, to fellowship and the Lord’s table, then we read the consequence of their devotion. “The Lord added daily to their number those who were being saved.”
So, as we diagnose our church, we started last time with considering our devotion to the Word. Today we look at our devotion to prayer.
They continued steadfastly in prayer. To continue steadfastly in anything means that you spend time at it, you are dedicated to doing it regularly and intently.
Before we jump in, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
There are Five points I want to emphasize. Five actions, on our part that result in powerful prayers; searching, believing, continuing, agreeing, discipling.
I. Searching
This is where we start with prayer. Any time you pray, you are always searching. Searching for what? for God’s will. Let’s go back and look at Acts 2 and that early church. It tells us that they were “42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ [n]doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Notice that the apostles doctrine is listed first. You might note that the first thing in the list that they were dedicated to was the apostle’s teaching. Then came fellowship and then finally prayer. What that tells me is that they spent time coming to know God’s Word, and God’s people and educated their prayers. Before prayer, they wanted to know the mind of God. Even fellowship is listed after the apostles teaching. God’s will comes first, even before the concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
If there’s anything that takes power away from prayer, it is praying blindly without a firm knowledge of the Word of God. That doesn’t mean we have to know the whole Word before we go to God in prayer. But it means that our prayers happen in conjunction with our growing in the knowledge of God. And we are in a continual search to know more so that our prayers come in line with God’s will.
The fewer the words, the better the prayer. To have prayed well is to have studied well.
Martin Luther
So often we center our prayers on a laundry list of things we want for ourselves and for those we love. Like those whom Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, we are praying about the necessities of life. “What will we eat, what will we wear, will I live or die?” But Jesus said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
We should be praying in accord with the will of God
But preacher, doesn’t scripture say that I can have whatever I ask?
John 14:13-14 And whatever you ask, in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
This promise is repeated in John 15:16, and 16:23. But notice that it says, ask “in my name.” You are an ambassador for Christ in this lost world. Just like an ambassador from a foreign land has no power in and of himself, but if he says, “I come to you in the name of King such and such.” Then he is representing the interests and calling on the treaties and authority of His Sovereign. Now, does that ambassador have the right to demand privileges outside of the treaties and authority of his king?” No
Praying in the name of Jesus means we are asking for things within the will and authority of God. We are standing on the Word of God.
The shame of our praying now is that we often do it separate from the Word. We just go to God with our list of wants, leave the list with Him, say thank you for listening, then leave. That would be like going to the doctor with your symptoms, your friends and family’s symptoms. “Doc, I have a pain here, I have a rash here, my son has a ringing in his right ear, My neighbor breaks out when he eats parsnips. Well, thank you very much, please work it all out.” Then you leave without hearing a diagnosis or a treatment plan.
We have to search in our prayers for God’s will. Romans 8:27 tells us that even the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, “according to the will of God.”
1 John 5:14 says, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
II. Believing
There were a number of times when Jesus did a miracle that he drew attention to the person’s belief. When a centurion came to him and asked him to heal his servant, Jesus said to him…
Matthew 8:13 as you have believed so let it be done to you.
When two blind men came to him for healing, he asked them, do you believe that I am able to do this, they said yes, and he touched their eyes and said, “then according to your faith let it be done to you.”
A man brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus and said, If you can do anything please help. Jesus responded by saying, “Everything is possible for one who believes.” The man responded, “I believe, help my unbelief.” When we pray we are saying the same thing.
Did they have to believe in order for Jesus to heal them? Could Jesus have healed these people if they didn’t believe? Yes, Jesus healed people with no faith, people who didn’t even know who he was.
Jesus raised the dead.
But God calls on us to believe and responds favorably to our belief in our prayers. When we pray, we must have faith. We must believe.
But I submit to you that belief is a broader idea than just believing that God will answer a prayer like I want Him to. We often hear, “when you pray, you have to believe that God can and will give you what you desire.”
I think that’s a very elementary understanding of belief. I think the belief that results in powerful answers to prayer is whole life belief.
Let me give you an Old Testament example.
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. What did Abraham believe? That God would give him all that He promised, a son, a land, a future blessing? Yes, but Abraham’s faith in God went far beyond these temporary blessings. He was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. He had his eye on eternity. Abraham had a whole faith. He believed in the God who made the world. He believed in the God who judged sin. He believed in the God who offered redemption.
And yet, even though we can say that he believed, Abraham spent most of his life in unanswered prayer. Abraham was 100 years old before he received the son he had been praying for.
So, even though it took 100 years before he ever had the son of promise, and even though he never owned property in the land that was promised, except a grave plot, his faith/trust in God was unshakable.
He saw God’s long game. He knew he was saved.
Let me show you a New Testament example. Remember the story of the nobleman who came to Jesus to get healing for his son.
John 4:49-53
49 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”
52 Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.
The first believe seems to simply be that he believed Jesus word that his son was healed. But look at the last verse, “himself believed, and his whole house.” What was it that they were believing then? Is it saying that they believed their son was healed? No, it’s more than that, their son was sitting right in front of them, of course they believed that. I think it is indicating that they came to believe in Jesus. His power, who He was, that He came from God, fulfilled prophesy. Their belief took in more than just believing in the possibility of a miracle, they believed in the person of Christ.
Our prayers have to be prayers of belief, not just concerning the requests we make, but putting our trust and faith in God and who He is.
We go to God in prayer searching, and believing. Not just some elementary belief that God will give us what we want, but a wholistic belief in God as our Savior and Provider. We go to Him as His children.
Look at..
III. Continuing
Speaking about morning prayer
The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.
C.S. Lewis
Is it our first impulse when we rise in the morning?
Because as John Bunyan said
He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.
John Bunyan
Because
You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.
John Bunyon
And pray throughout the day
Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you.
Martin Luther
Because
If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.
Martin Luther
What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more.
Robert Murray McCheyne.
So, today we are going to continue looking at our relationship to God in our Lord Jesus Christ by diagnosing our prayer lives; but before we proceed, let’s go to the Lord in prayer. (bottom of page 3)
There are lots of scriptures about continuing in prayer.
Jesus as our example.
Jesus continued all night in prayer.
Acts 1:14 14 These all continued with one [a]accord in prayer [b]and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Acts 2:42 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ [a]doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Romans 12:12 12 rejoicing in hope, patient[a] in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
Colossians 4:2 2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;
Jesus said
Keep on asking, seeking, knocking. We keep at it. And let me say this, the reason we keep at it is not because we have to wear God down. Since the first thing we seek in prayer is God’s will, and since we go to Him with belief, putting trust in Him, who He is, our prayers are all about building our relationship to God, growing in our love for Him and trust of Him. So, we’re not praying with a goal of getting what we want. But to get to the heart of God, close communion with Him, and that’s the place where answers come.
The parable of the persistent widow
The parable of the neighbor asking for bread in the middle of the night.
I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
When Luther's puppy happened to be at the table, he looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes; he (Martin Luther) said, 'Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish or hope."
Luther's Ta.bletalk
Now, we may ask questions that introduce doubt at this point. We may ask, why would God require our continuing in prayer? He says, “pray, pray, and keep on praying, don’t give up.” But I don’t understand why. If I pray once, He has heard my prayer. He knows the need. He knows whether He will give me the answer I desire. Why does He require me to keep on asking? Well, I’m not going to pretend to know the whole answer. But I know that prayer is as much about changing me as it is about changing my circumstances. My prayers are also part of my spiritual growth and learning to trust God.
IV. Agreeing
Matthew 18:19 19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
This does not say what we’ve been told it says. Let me get a little crazy. People have quoted this verse in churches, in hospital rooms. They are agreeing for healing right? It says, “if you agree touching anything.” But two principles of Scripture interpretation apply here; context and comparison.
Let’s look at comparison first. We interpret Scripture, we come to understand it’s meaning by comparing it to other Scripture. We take the Scripture that we are trying to understand and lay it next to other Scriptures that deal with the same thing. We believe that Scripture does not contradict Scripture, so if we compare, they shouldn’t contradict. So, we read this Scripture, and it seems to say that if two or more believers agree together to ask God for something, that God will automatically give them what they ask for. But let’s get crazy for a minute. What if all of us today decided that it is enough. We are tired of this world. We are ready for it all to be over. We’re ready for Jesus to come back and rapture us all away. So, we gather today, there’s some 30 of us here, and ask God to send Jesus back, to rapture Christians, at exactly 12 noon today.
Will it happen because we asked for it? Because we agreed? No, because it violates other Scripture. No one can know the day or hour. The timing of the end is in God’s Sovereign control.
And if we compare this verse to other verses that we’ve already looked at, we know that there are other things that impact the effectiveness of our prayers. Other verses say that we have to pray according to God’s will. We have to keep on asking, seeking, knocking. We have to believe.
So, if we take this verse to mean that two or three can agree to ask for anything, and they will get it, that directly contradicts other Scriptures that say that you have to pray in God’s will, keep asking, and believe.
So, does the Bible contradict itself? No. We misinterpreted this Scripture.
Look at the second principle. Comparison and context. What is the context of this passage? In other words, what was the topic of discussion when Jesus said these words?
15 “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ 17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again[d] I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
The whole passage is about dealing with sin in the church. Let’s go back and pick up some key words.
15 “Moreover if your brother sins….16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’
Who are the two or three who are gathering here? They are two or three who are gathering to confront a brother or sister about their sin. Now look at what comes next. “But if he refuses even to hear…. let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”
What is it that these two or three who are gathered are agreeing on? How they will treat the unrepentant brother or sister. Now go on in the passage.
“whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
What are these two or three binding or loosing? The placement of a brother or sister in a position of discipline. So now read verse 19-20 again.
19 “Again[d] I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
What are the two or three agreeing on? They are agreeing on the discipline of an unrepentant sinning brother or sister in Christ. Jesus is saying to His disciples that if they will confront sin in a fellow believer in the way that He prescribed, that Heaven will come alongside those believers and discipline that believer in order to bring them back into the fold.
The passage is not some blank check for us to get the answers to prayer that we want. The context concerns church discipline.
Now I think there is great value in coming together in agreement with other Christians in prayer. But it’s not a magic talisman that guarantees that God will give us what we ask. I do believing in agreeing together about what we pray for. But the power of the agreement is not that we somehow obligate God because “we agreed, so you have to do it.” But because, again, we are searching for God’s will, we are believing and trusting God. So, in the process of our praying, the agreement with other believers comes because we all sharpen each other.
V. Discipling
Discipling and prayer are inseparable. You know, I’ve heard people say, and I’ve experienced it as well, “I feel like my prayer life is stagnant.” “I pray for the same things over and over again.” “I pray for the same people; my family, my church.” And we instinctively know that it shouldn’t be that way.
So, I returned again to the book of Acts, to that 1st church to try and discover what their prayer life was like. It says that they continued steadfastly in prayer. But what were they praying for? I looked through the book of Acts to see what was being prayed for, and I discovered something.
Prayer in Acts, once Holy Spirit came; prayer for Justus and Matthias, boldness, new deacons; Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, Samaritan believers, Simon Magus, Cornelius, Dorcas, Peter, Barnabus and Saul, newly appointed elders in the church, father of Publius,
So many instances of prayer concerned new individuals who were either unbelievers being presented with the gospel, new believers challenged to grow, or old believers being encouraged to remain faithful. The prayers were for people; specific people at specific points in their spiritual journeys. As Acts concludes, the story of Paul continues with the letters he wrote to individual churches. And in every letter, Paul tells them that he is praying for them.
The church in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossi, Thessalonica, Sometimes, he even mentions specific names of people at those churches. He prayed for Timothy, and Philemon. You know, I’ve got a feeling that Paul never ran out of people to pray for; because he was always seeking new disciples. I think that our prayers can become stale, because we have limited our prayers, and our mission to me and mine. My family, my church, my friends. If we were a part of an active discipling process, we would never run out of people and circumstances to pray for.
Ying Chai said something in his book. Many Christians today seem to have little or no joy. He said that he thinks there’s a reason for that. Our job in this world is to make disciples.
Scripture says that there is great joy in heaven when one soul comes to faith. The Spirit of the Lord rejoices when lost sheep are found. Three parables—rejoicing when the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son comes home.
One of the greatest joys a Christian can experience is to be a part of seeing a lost person come to faith, or a straying person return to the fold.
So, are you missing joy in your life as a believer? You need to join the “Disciples making disciples” movement.
What do I mean when I say that our prayers need to include discipling? That if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, our prayers will be filled with the spiritual concerns for people we are evangelizing, and discipling.
That’s where we go next in our church diagnosis; the church is an organization of disciples making disciples. I told you that the church is to be concerned with three relationships; with God, with believers, and with the world. I’m glad God makes it simple for us. But it gets even simpler.
In regard to your relationship to God; work on your continual dedication to the Word of God and prayer. In regard to believers and the world; it’s very simple; make disciples.
What if I come to church meetings? What is my chief responsibility to fellow believers? Find out if they are disciples who are making disciples, and encourage them in becoming that. What if I go to work, or somewhere among nonbelievers in the world? What is my chief responsibility to nonbelievers or those I don’t know? Find out if they are disciples who are making disciples, and encourage them in becoming that.
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