Sunday, February 12, 2012 Acts of Prayer: Snapshots from the Prayer Life of the Early Church Snapshot 2, "It's a Matter of Timing."

- Have you ever stopped to consider how much of our lives have to do with timing?

- I mean, really? What in our lives isn't affected by timing? Everything has to do with timing, doesn't it?

- Education, marriage, childbirth, employment, growth & development, aging & many other big life influencing factors as well as small ones, like the commute to school or to work, finding a place to park at the mall or the grocery store, even waiting in line at the bank. Everything is affected by timing.

- Now you may be wondering what that has to do with this morning's Scripture passage, but we've already answered that question in part because we've already admitted that everything is affected by timing.

- If everything is affected by timing & if God is sovereign, then is anything left to chance or has God included every moment in his plans? Has he already made provision for every single decision every person will ever make?

- Certainly, if our God is the all-knowing, all-powerful & good God that I believe him to be, then surely he has timed everything according to his plans.

-The title of our message for this morning is, It's a Matter of Timing. Our God times everything according to his perfect plans. With God, everything is a matter of timing, which brings me to our lesson for today.

- Luke tells his readers that, "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place" (v. 1). I don't want us to lose the significance of verse one because this verse keeps us connected to the context. It reminds us of where the 120 disciples of Jesus are & what they are doing.

- You see, for 10 days the disciples had been praying, searching the Scriptures, & celebrating Jesus, Jesus who is the first fruits of the harvest to come.

- That's an interesting thought. You know, it was at Passover & the Feast of Unleavened Bread that a sheaf of grain was brought by every family to the Temple as a wave offering before the Lord as an offering of first fruits.

- Jesus is like that sheaf wave offering since he offered himself up on a cross at the beginning of the feast.

- The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, seven Sabbaths after Passover, is the harvest feast.

- Pentecost was one of the major feasts of the Jewish calendar & many pilgrims would've been in Jerusalem at that time as is portrayed in Acts chapter 2.

- God had been preparing his renewed people for this special Pentecost in which not only would his people celebrate the harvest, but would celebrate a spiritual harvest through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the Church of God.

- God chose the timing of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to coincide with the feast of Pentecost specifically & deliberately for maximum impact & for his glory so that Pentecost would become a celebration of not only God's provision for his people of food, but also of God's provision for his people in making his very person, presence, & power available to all who call on his name.

- From the beginning of this message, I've had a question in mind that I wanted us to answer & I think it's time we got to that.

- According to Luke, why did the 120 remain gathered together in prayer for the 10 days leading up to Pentecost & why did God wait before sending his Spirit?

- The 120 remained together in prayer for the 10 days leading up to Pentecost & God waited before sending his Spirit because God's timing is designed for maximum kingdom impact & glory.

- That brings us to the main point of today's message. If you remember nothing else from the sermon, I want to challenge you & encourage you to remember that answered prayers are a matter of God's timing for his glory & kingdom.

- Answered prayers are a matter of God's timing for his glory & kingdom.

- That statement sums up the meaning & purpose of prayer. It also reminds us about the main role of the church.

-Christians are to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. As Jesus said on the Mount of Olives, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, & you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem & in all Judea & Samaria, & to the end of the earth” Acts 1:8 (ESV).

-Now, what does a witness do? In the courtroom, a witness testifies to the truth. A witness for Jesus Christ testifies to the death, burial, & bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave.

- You see, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the message of the gospel.

- Jesus defeated sin in his sinless life & by offering up himself on a cross. Sin is the first enemy that we all face in our day-to-day lives, but Jesus defeated sin.

- The second & final enemy is death & the good news is that Jesus not only defeated sin, but he also defeated death so that death no longer has any power over those who trust in Jesus Christ.

- In a world that believes that the resurrection of Jesus is a myth & which embraces biological evolution as a fact, then death is merely a part of the natural process & cycle of life.

- However, since it can be established beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus Christ rose from the dead & since he lives, then there is something sincerely unnatural about or wrong with death. Sin & death are the bad news for us all.

- It is the role of the church, the whole church, every person who claims Christ as Saviour & Lord, to be witnesses for Jesus to the glory & kingdom of God. Because Jesus lives, sin & death are defeated.

- If what I say is true, & I believe it is, that, "Answered prayers are a matter of God's timing for his glory & kingdom," then it is very important that the church persevere in prayer that we persist & not give up, but keep on praying because we do not know the details of God's timing.

- We cannot be certain when he will do what he has promised or when he will answer the prayers of his people.

- None of us can say when the moment will come that a family member, neighbour, friend, or co-worker we've been praying for will surrender him/her-self to Jesus Christ, or receive healing or deliverance.

- None of us can know. God's timing is God's timing. That's his right, but two things we can do.

- We can pray & we can watch for the opportune moment to testify as witnesses of Jesus Christ.

- Think about your own life & remember the times when you heard about how people were praying for you, persisting & not giving up, praying that you would see the light, praying you would surrender to Jesus, & eventually God in his perfect timing opened your eyes by the Holy Spirit to his glory & for his kingdom.

- I'm sure we all have stories we can tell about the timing of God in answered prayer both in our own lives & the lives of those whom we love.

- For years my grandparents prayed for me because they had a sense that the Lord was calling me to be a pastor; they had a hint about the kind of mess that my life was in, but they didn't know the half of it. They prayed for me & they kept on praying because they knew that Answered prayers are a matter of God's timing for his glory & kingdom.

- Once I became a pastor, they kept on praying for me for the very same reason.

- Later, when I was struggling with burnout & depression, they still prayed for me.

- I believe from the bottom of my heart that I am before you today because answered prayers are a matter of God's timing for his glory & kingdom.

- That first group of 120 believers gathered together in the upper room & daily attended the Temple to persevere in prayer knowing that God's timing is for his glory & kingdom.

- After those 10 days, they experienced the person, presence, & power of the kingdom of God in ways they would not have before imagined.

- People of God, may you persevere in prayer because answered prayers are a matter of God's timing for his glory & kingdom.