The First Prayer Meeting

 

Cheo Han was a vile man who lived in china. He marshaled his forces from a certain house in Changsha for a campaign against  foreigners and Christians . With large colored posters printed in wooden blocks he pictured Christianity in vile forms. He  portrayed the Christians laying prostrate before a hog hanging on the cross. The Christians labored to break down the power of Cheo Han and to march into the closed region of Changsha. 

They prayed, they beseeched God, they made Changsha the target for the arrows of their petition. God answered their prayers in the most unusual manner. Cheo was arrested and imprisoned by the Chinese government as a dire menace to the goodwill among neighboring nations.  God answered the Christian prayers “open Changsha for the preaching of the gospel”.

Every block printed vile Christian’s portrait was brought down. Cheo’s printing presses were confiscated. Amazingly but true the very house where his presses issued the anti-preaching campaigns was purchased by the American Bible Society as a depository for Chinese Bibles. And out of that house has flowed through years of stream of Bibles carrying the story of Christ and his power to redeem as well as to answer prayer.

After Jesus was taken up to heaven, his disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Lk 24:52). Their Master had departed and yet paradoxically they were filled with great joy! Why?  Their joy had a firm foundation of truth. They had no doubt that Jesus was the Lord of glory. They knew where Jesus was. He had gone back to the father and was now sitting down at his right hand (Mark 16:19). They knew that Jesus would return and they would see Him again someday. That gave them much joy.

They were filled with joy because their faith had been confirmed. They were certain of victory. They were ready to accept the task of witnessing to the world. But Jesus command was clear “wait in Jerusalem until you receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5, Luke 24:49).  The apostles did not question His command. They obeyed and they returned to Jerusalem. We are never ready for God’s service until we have learnt to follow his instructions.

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers (Acts 1:12-14).

 Eleven disciples are listed here, Judas defected. Peter comes first as always, followed by the two bothers John and James. These eleven apostles were not on anyone’s list of movers and shakers. They were ordinary men, but they would indeed go on to change the world. They conquered the world not due to anything in them but only by the power of the Holy Spirit. This reminds us that God can do incredible things through unlikely people.

The disciples gathered with the women. As Jesus traveled throughout Israel a group of women whose lives he had changed followed him from place to place. They provided support for him and his disciples (Matt. 27:55, Luke 8:1-3). Some of those women were in the upper room praying.  We know some of their names from other accounts.   Matthew 27:55 tells us there were “many women.”

Mary the mother of Jesus was present in the prayer group. She was waiting for the Holy Spirit together with others.  She had no place of superiority. She did not come first in the list. She was praying with the others, they were not praying to her or through her. Mary can’t answer prayer, she needed to pray herself. Acts 1:14 contains the final mention of Mary in the Bible. Paul never mentions Mary in any of his doctrines of redemption.

Jesus had half-brothers: James, Joseph, Simon and Judas; he also had sisters (Mark 6:3, Matt. 13:55-56). During his lifetime his family didn’t know what to make of him. In John 7:3-5 his brothers clearly are not yet believers; at one point they thought he was mentally disturbed (Mark 3:21). Evidently they are now believers. His brother James wrote the Epistle of James and His brother Judas wrote the Epistle of Jude.

While they waited for the Holy Spirit they devoted themselves to prayer (Acts1:14). The only communication they could now have with their Lord was through prayer. He had told them “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing... do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name...You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:12-13).

What were they praying for?  We are not told what the content of their prayers was.   Were they seeking the Lord for strength and wisdom?  Were they addressing the needs of their own hearts?   We don’t know.   Were they praying for the Holy Spirit to come? We don’t know but it’s possible. Why would they pray for something that Jesus had promised? If He promised it, is it not certain it’s going to happen?”

Is it a certainty that God’s kingdom will one day be established on earth? There is no question about it! Yet in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus instructs us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). The prophet Daniel asked for a speedy fulfilment of the prophecy regarding Israel’s captivity (Daniel 9).

Daniel was a diligent student of Scripture who built his prayer life on the Word of God. In Daniel 9:2-3 we read “ in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”

Daniel knew that effective prayer comes out of knowing and praying both God’s word and our present circumstances. His study of prophecy showed him a specific number – 70 years described in Jeremiah 25:11-13 and Jeremiah 29:10. His study led him to discover that the 70 years were over. Daniel knew that God had promised freedom after 70 years, yet he prayed passionately that God would do what he had promised to do.

Daniel knew that God’s promises invite our prayers and participation. God’s promises should motivate us to pray and to persist in prayer until they are a reality, because we know that He will fulfil His Word.  The psalmist prayed “remember the word to your servant, upon which you have caused me to hope” (Ps 119:49). Prayers are powerful when they are aligned with God’s word, nothing can prevail with him like his own.”

The disciples continued in prayer as they waited for the Holy Spirit to come. They did not know how long they were going to have to wait but they persisted in prayers, they kept at it. Luke's Gospel adds another detail that  they"were continually in the temple praising God" (Lk 24:53). They did not remain locked up in the upper room the whole period, they would also go to the temple and praise God.

This shows they had become more courageous after seeing the resurrected Jesus. In John 20:18-19  we read  after seeing the resurrected Jesus “Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord…then, the same day at evening…when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst”. Now they were openly praising in the temple.

Notice also that they prayed together. Praying alone and going to a solitary place to talk to God is important. Jesus did that often (Mark 6:46, Luke 6:12) and so should we. But that’s not the only kind of prayer the Bible mentions. There is a time and place for God’s people to come together to pray. There is an unusual strength that comes from praying with others.

It is a scriptural principle that when we come to God in agreement with other believers, the prayer power multiplies supernaturally. Five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight (Lev 26:8). Paul knew this principle so he told the Roman believers, “Now I beg you, brethren… that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me” ( Romans 15:30).

Luke uses a particular word to stress the harmony of their prayers. The word which the King James translates with the phrase “in one accord” is a musical term that means to strike the same notes together. We all know what it is to listen to a choir sing and the music is lovely and then without warning, someone hits a wrong note. The discordant sound sticks out.

When the early church prayed, there were no “wrong notes”–no ugly attitudes, no pointing fingers, no gossips, no criticizing. When people don’t like each other, they can’t pray together very long. These men and women had their hearts knit together for a common cause. For over 10 days they continuously praised in the temple and prayed in the upper room “in one accord”.

Why the stress on praying harmoniously and continually? Acts 1:12-14 gives us a pattern for how the church should operate in every age. As congregations we cannot be empowered until we are of one mind and heart. True Christian unity is one of God’s best gifts. If you have it there is no limit to what God can do through your church. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity... For there the Lord commanded the blessing Life forevermore (Ps.133:1-3).

 In Acts 1 we find the first prayer meeting of the Christian era. It happened just after Christ ascends to heaven. The Christian church was born in a prayer meeting. Whenever God wants to do something great in the world, he first stirs his people to pray. We can do many things once we have prayed. Prayer is the Christian’s secret weapon; it’s good to remember that everything depends on God.