Continued Prayer
Pastor Don Carpenter
Discipleship 101 / Acts 2:41–42; Acts 12:1–15
Let me share this story to show you the position we have with the Lord in prayer. Billy Graham shares this story of an African mother who came to Christ and grew in her commitment and devotion to the Lord. She was a woman that prayed all the time and talked of her Jesus. As so often happens, however, this alienated her from her husband, and over the years he grew to despise and hate her new devotion to Christ. His anger and bitterness reached a climax when he decided to kill his wife, their two children and himself, unable to live in misery of conviction in his home. But he needed a motive to kill his family. So He decided that he would accuse her of stealing his precious keys – the keys on his chain were to the bank, the house, and the car. Early one afternoon he left his bank and headed for the Tavern. His route took him across a footbridge extended over the headwaters of the Nile River. He paused above the river and dropped the keys. He spent all afternoon drinking and carousing. Later that afternoon, his wife went to the fish market to buy the evening meal. She purchased a large Nile perch. As she was gutting the fish, to her astonishment, in it’s belly were her husband’s keys. She wondered how they could have gotten in the fish? What were the circumstances? She did not know; but she cleaned them up and hung them on the hook. Sufficiently drunk, the enraged African man came home that night and pounded open the front door shouting, “Woman, where are my keys?” Already in bed, she got up, picked them off the hook in the bedroom, and handed them to her husband. When he saw the keys, he was so shocked that by his own testimony he immediately became sober and was instantly on his knees sobbing, asked for forgiveness, and confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. That African mother saved the life of her family because she understood her glorious position in prayer. Boldness before the Lord.
From a sermon by Tim Adams, Vision for Prayer, 12/1/2009
This is the last message in our “Discipleship 101” series. We have been looking at the zeal of the First Church at Jerusalem and have discovered several basic things the new believers did.
Acts 2:41–42 KJV
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Once becoming born again, these new Christians immediately made that decision very public by becoming Baptized and then joining their local church. After that they continued steadfastly – or- persisted obstinately in doctrine, fellowship/ partnership/ breaking of bread/ Communion, and in prayers. Today we will discover what helped unlock the power of God that allowed that tiny band of believers to grow into a Force of belief that “turned the world upside down”. We will learn the power of Continued Prayer.
Continue Steadfastly In Prayer
A Greek-English Lexicon ????????????
????????????, Dor. ???????????? IG4(1).63.4 (Epid., ii B.C.):—persist obstinately in
• Waiting for the Promised Power of the Holy Spirit
Acts 1:14 (KJV)
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
• Latched on once they received it.
Acts 2:42 (KJV)
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
• Leaders made it a priority.
Acts 6:4 (KJV)
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
• Weathering the Storms
Romans 12:12 (KJV)
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
Continuing instant (????????????????). Compare Acts 1:14; 6:4. Rev., steadfastly for instant, which has lost its original sense of urgent (Latin, instare to press upon). Thus Latimer: “I preached at the instant request of a curate.” Compare A. V., Luke 7:4; Acts 26:7.
Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 3, p. 159). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Let the kingdom be always before you, and believe steadfastly concerning the things that are invisible. Let nothing that is on this side the other world get within you. And, above all, look well to your own hearts and to the lusts thereof; for they are “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Set your faces like a flint; you have all power in heaven and earth on your side.
John Bunyan
Continue In Prayer With One Accord
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
Accord-homothumadon (??????????, 3661), “of one accord” (from homos, “same,” thumos, “mind”)
• Waiting For Power
Acts 1:14 (KJV)
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
“The first rule of true prayer is to have heart and mind in the right mood for talking with God.”
John Calvin
• Bonding as a Body
Acts 2:46 (KJV)
And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
• Facing Adversity
Acts 4:23–31 (KJV)
And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
• Uniting In Power
Acts 5:12 (KJV)
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
Tertullian was an author and apologist in the late second and early third centuries AD. He wrote over 31 works on theology after his conversion in his mid-thirties. Also: Quintas Septimius Florens Tertullianus; Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian (African Church Father); Septimius Tertullianus; Tertullien
“One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives.”
Tertullian
Continue to Pray For One Another
• When Deliverance is Immediately Needed
Acts 12:1–5 (KJV)
Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
• For Boldness and Opportunity
Colossians 4:2–4 (KJV)
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
Ephesians 6:18–19 (KJV)
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
• For All Men -Especially Leaders
1 Timothy 2:1–2 KJV
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
The New Testament Church was known as those that “turned the world upside down”. This power came because they were obstinately persistent in prayer. Do not discount our mid-week prayer service. The power of God is unleashed. Over and over our little band of prayer warriors have seen the hand of God in response to our corporate prayer… just like the early church did.
J. B. Phillips writes in the preface to The Young Church in Action, that one cannot spend several months in close study of this book, “without being profoundly stirred and, to be honest, disturbed. The reader is stirred,” he says, “because he is seeing Christianity, the real thing, in action for the first time in human history…Here we are seeing the Church in its first youth, valiant and unspoiled…a body of ordinary men and women joined in an unconquerable fellowship never before seen on earth.” But the reader is also disturbed, “for surely,” he adds, this “is the Church as it was meant to be. It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity, or muscle-bound by over organization. These men did not make acts of faith, they believed; they did not say their prayers, they prayed. They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick. By modern standards they may have been naïve, but perhaps because of their very simplicity, perhaps because of their readiness simply to believe, to obey, to give, to suffer, and, if necessary, to die, the Spirit of God found that he could work in them and through them, and so they turned the world upside down!
And that is Discipleship 101.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 2:31 PM October 13, 2022.