When the Church Prays: The Priority of

Praying Together (Acts 6:1-5)

This is sermon # 1 in a series of a 6-sermon series on prayer titled: When the Church Prays

Note: I have drawn substantially from John Franklin’s fine work, And the Place Was Shaken, for
the outline and content on this message.

My aim this morning is, first, to so persuade you from God’s Word and from church history of
the primacy of corporate prayer that you will never view the prayer meetings of our church the
same again.

Second, my aim and my prayer is that you will determine to take one step forward in your
participation and confidence in prayer, not just as an individual, but with other believers,
gathered together with the purpose of seeing God’s glory manifested.

Why am I talking about this today? Is it because our Wednesday prayer meeting attendance is off
or our Prayer Ministry involvement is lacking? No, in fact, in both cases, this church has been
stronger in attendance and involvement than any I’ve served.

And the Place Was Shaken

 I bring the issue of praying together up for three reasons:

1) Corporate prayer is on par with preaching and teaching as a priority in a healthy church.

2) Praying together is a vital key to opening God’s presence and work among His people in
unique ways. And
3) The tendency among believers, even among those who occupy leadership positions in the
church, to think of prayer gatherings as the extra-curricular activity in the life of the church.

It’s good to have, but not important enough to join; something you briefly tack on to a meeting
before you get down to the real business. There are a growing number of believers who view
prayer meetings as optional, secondary,

This morning I am on a mission: I want to convince you that God has sovereignly ordained the
corporate praying of a church, such that His mighty workings increase exponentially and His
purposes are accelerated when we pray together. Understand that this message is not given to
minimize personal prayer. Instead, it is to show you that personal prayer alone will not result in
the working of God to the degree needed for spiritual transformation in our lives, our church, our
cities, and our nation.

“Pretty bold statements, pastor. You got anything to back that up?” I’m glad you asked. I want to
give you five proofs from the Word and world history that establish the desperate need for all
who are believers to become a part of the prayer gatherings of this body. This morning we will
survey various Scriptures that establish something simple, profound, and stirring: Praying
Churches are used of God to change the world. Here are 5 proofs:

Putting Priority Back on Prayer Meetings

1. Praying Together Was A Priority for the Apostles.

In Acts 6, the Church in Jerusalem faced one of its first dilemmas. Here’s how it happened:

In those days, as the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint by the
Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily
distribution.  (Time out! The word distribution is the word “diakonia,” which is the root word
behind our words deacon and ministry. So the emphasis is on serving people.)

Verse 2: Then the Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not
be right for us to give up preaching about God to wait on tables.  (Stop once more! The word
translated wait on or serve tables is diakonein, from the same root family as in v. 2, focusing on
serving others). Back to the passage: Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of
good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. Literally, v. 4
reads, But we to the prayer and the “diakonia” of the word will steadfastly continue.

Now I’ve always heard that this meant that the apostles delegated ministry responsibilities to
others so that they would be freed up to spend time in personal prayer and receive a fresh word
from the Lord to preach to the people.  But that is not the point of this passage.

The apostles are not referring to the need for personal, private prayer. Instead, they are talking
about the ministry of mobilizing the people of God to pray together. They were marking out the
two ministries they must especially do as church leaders. Let me show you the clues that lead to
this conclusion.
1) The context of this passage revolves around ministries. Verse 1 points out a problem with
ministries. In v. 2, the apostles discuss what ministries they must do and the ones they must not
do. In v. 3-4, they instruct that seven men be identified from among the congregation to take on
this ministry. This section of Scripture is focused on ministry to people, not on personal issues.

2) The definite article before prayer in v. 4 points to something significant. Listen again: But we
to the prayer and to the ministry of the word will steadfastly continue. That little word “the” that
appears before prayer indicates that this doesn’t mean prayer in general. It highlights something
specific and important. The syntax of the sentence creates the possibility that the ministry of
prayer and the word are twin ideas.

3) The example of the apostles in Acts points to the priority praying together held for them.
Every occurrence of prayer in Acts preceding Chapter 6 (1:14, 24; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31) pictures
the apostles leading others in prayer. Not one reference points to their private prayer time; the
focus is on God’s people praying together.

So by testimony and by example, it is plain that the apostles placed a high premium on the
people of God praying together. They considered guiding the corporate prayer life of the church
just as critical a priority as the preaching/teaching of God’s Word. Let’s add a second proof:

2. Praying Together was Modeled and Practiced by Christ.

The apostles learned their leadership patterns from the Master, Jesus Christ. Ransack the Gospels
for Jesus’ teaching and practice of prayer, and you will identify 37 verses, sometimes repeated in
more than one Gospel. Of those 37 instances in which Jesus refers to prayer, 33 of them were
addressed to a plural rather than singular audience. In other words, Jesus’ instruction decisively
leaned toward praying with others, not just praying in private.

Take, for example, Matt. 7:7: “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you
will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” We read “you” in that verse and
immediately think it’s singular, referring to an individual. In fact, it is a plural “you,” meaning
Jesus is urging a gathering of believers to ask, seek, and knock.

In other passages, Jesus deliberately emphasized the significance of praying together. Listen to
Matt. 18:19: Again, I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for,
it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.  Jesus could have said, “If anyone asks…;”
instead, He deliberately chose to emphasize a group gathered for prayer. This focus of Jesus’ on
more than one praying indicates that there is a design of God’s in such gatherings, through which
He uniquely and powerfully works.

So the apostles made it a practice and a priority to teach about praying with fellow believers and
to practice it because they had heard and seen Jesus emphasize the same thing.

3.  Praying Together and the Mighty Moves of God in the NT.
The Book of Acts records the mighty works of God for and through His church in its early years,
and clearly connects them to unified, corporate prayer.

The 120 were gathered in an upper room praying in one accord when Pentecost comes (Acts
1:13; 2:1).

The disciples prayed for wisdom in knowing who Judas’ replacement should be (Acts 1:24).

When Peter and John reported the Sanhedrin’s threats, those gathered cried out to God in one
accord for boldness, and the place was shaken where they prayed (Acts 4:24, 31).

The church prayed over the seven men appointed to serve the widows (Acts 6:6).

After James was martyred and Peter imprisoned by Herod, but the church was fervently praying,
and God miraculously delivered Peter from his cell (Acts 12:1-11).

While the prophets and teachers were praying and fasting, the Holy Spirit called Paul and
Barnabas to go on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-2).

Paul and Silas were praying when God sent an earthquake that resulted in the conversion of the
jailer and their release (Acts 16:25).

Again, let me say that I am not disparaging personal, private prayer. Ananias was praying alone
when God instructed him to go to Saul (Acts 9:10ff.). Peter was alone on the rooftop when he
had his famous vision leading him to share the Gospel with a Gentile named Cornelius (Acts
10:9ff.). Nevertheless, the majority of God’s recorded workings came when His people prayed
together.

4. Corporate Prayer in God’s Mighty Works in Past History.

There are so many examples of how corporate prayer was the springboard for the sweeping
movements of God. Let me mention a few. In 1857, America was riding the wave of a strong
economy, and, as tends to be true in times of prosperity, showed a radical decrease of interest in
the things of God. There was a layman named Jeremiah Lamphier whose concern led to a call for
prayer. He tacked up notices in NYC calling for a weekly prayer meeting on Wednesdays from
noon till one at a rented space on Fulton Street.

The first prayer meeting was on September 23, 1857. Only six people came, and they didn’t
arrive until just before 12:30. The next week, the attendance jumped to 20. The numbers
continued to climb week-by-week.

Then, on October 10th, the Stock Market crashed and financial panic ensued. Trouble had its
humbling affect and the hearts of many turned to spiritual matters. It wasn’t long until
somewhere between 10 and 50,000 businessmen were meeting every day in NYC to pray at
noon. By week 15, the meetings moved from weekly to daily.
In 1858, this prayer movement leaped to every major city in America. The Second Great
Awakening swept our land. Estimates are that a million Americans out of a population of 30
million at that time were converted in less than two years. And it all started with prayer.

Rees Howells, a Welsh coal miner, journeyed to South Africa as a missionary in 1910 in
response to an increasing burden from the Lord. Six weeks after arriving, he joined in a prayer
meeting. Out of that came the sweeping work of the Holy Spirit in which they had two revival
meetings a day for fifteen months and all day on Friday. Thousands were converted as a result.

I could tell you story after story of how corporate prayer became the springboard for the mighty
movement of God. But I want to add one more proof that is as current as today’s newspaper.

5. Praying Together and God’s Works Today.

Right now, the Gospel is sweeping the globe at a rate that is unimaginable. Avery Willis, the VP
of our IMB, has reported that statistically, most of the people who have ever been saved in
history were saved during the 20th Century. Willis suggested as high as 70% of the total number
of people who have been saved throughout world history have come to Christ in the last hundred
years.

But get this: 70% of that number has been saved since 1945! Let me boggle your mind with one
other layer of observation from this world missions expert: 70% of those saved since 1945 were
saved since 1990! That’s how fast the Gospel is storming our world. That means that at the turn
of the 21st Century, possibly one-third of all Christians who have ever lived have been converted
since 1990!

What does that look like? In Nepal, just 2000 Christians were known in 1990; ten years later that
number had grown to half a million. Cambodia claimed only 600 believers in 1990; there is a
reported 60,000 today. In Korea during the 20th Century, the country advanced from being 2%
Christian to about 40% Christian today. East Africa is experiencing one of the greatest
movements of God in history. In Uganda alone, HIV/AIDS once claimed the lives of one-third of
the population. The World Health Organization predicted the complete collapse of the Ugandan
economy by the year 2000.

But revival has come to that country. With the salvation of many has come a transformation in
morals, so that AIDS is down to 5%. So great is this revival that one church alone went from 7 in
attendance to an average of 2000 in just two weeks! Currently, that same church as a
membership of 22,000 and has planted 150 other churches.

In almost every quarter of the globe, Christianity is advancing…except for four primary areas:
North America, Japan, Australia, and Western Europe. Guess what one of the common
denominators is everywhere Christianity marches forward? Christians spend time in prayer
together. Track what God is doing in Korea, in China, in India, in Eastern Africa, and you will
find behind the scenes prayer meetings.
I know what you’re thinking. Our prayer meetings don’t seem to convey that sort of power. And
you’re right. Over the next several weeks, you will see some strategic shifts in how we spend our
time on Wednesdays and when our Prayer Teams get together. But as we progress in that
direction, you be the change that’s needed.