Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts 6:1-7

*The Priority of Corporate Prayer*

 

“In these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

“And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

[1], [2]

 

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mong the churches of this day, “worship” has generally been redefined from the commonly accepted definition of an earlier day.

Perhaps this is because modern Christians are unaware of what the Bible teaches concerning worship, or perhaps it is because we consciously or unconsciously force the Word of God to fit our own particular worldview, rather than permitting the Word to shape our worldview.

Worship is the instinctive response of the individual who finds himself in the presence of the Lord.

Worship is not specifically an emotional act, though those who worship will find that the emotions are fully engaged because of the presence of the Holy One.

Contemporary Christians generally restrict the concept of worship to the corporate liturgy of the churches.

Consequently, the liturgy of the churches is often confused with worship.

However, worship is not so much an act as it is the response of the individual to the presence of the Living God.

Though the individual may believe he is presenting praise and honouring the Lord God together with many other Christians, if that person has not truly recognised the presence of the Son of God, he or she is not worshipping.

Worship is the act of seeking God, endeavouring to know Him and to recognise His presence among His people, seeking to honour Him through considering His glory and His perfections and through praising Him in Spirit and in truth.

Worship is nothing less than offering to God praise and adoration as His character is revealed through His Word.

Churches in this day tend to restrict worship to singing.

In the earliest descriptions of church life, however, worship primarily resulted as the Word was taught and the congregation prayed.

As an example of worship among the early churches, consider the actions of those who were added to the Jerusalem congregation after Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost by reviewing the description given in *Acts 2:42*.

Dr. Luke carefully describes these first Christians as having “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Worship, for the new Christians, consisted of receiving instruction in the Word, investing themselves in each others lives as they ministered to one another with the gifts that the Spirit of God had entrusted each one, observing the Lord’s Table with their fellow believers, and united prayer.

Scripture repeatedly admonishes us to watch doctrine and to attend to reading the Scriptures.

For instance, Paul cautioned Timothy to devote himself in his role as pastor “to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” [*1 Timothy 4:13*].

Nothing is said concerning the pastoral role other than that the pastor bears responsibility to ensure that the Word is read publicly, and that “persuasive discourse”[3] is to be employed as the pastor makes “earnest appeal,”[4] and instruction in the apostolic doctrine is to be provided for the benefit of those in attendance at the worship of the assembly.

Paul also stressed the necessity for prayer—both private and corporate prayer.

Instructing Timothy how he was to conduct the meetings of the congregation, he writes, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people” [*1 Timothy 2:1*].

Shortly, he would encourage the young theologue to insist that the congregation put into practise the teaching “that in every place the men should pray” [*1 Timothy 2:8*].

I realise that the early saints did include “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” [*Colossians 3:16*; see also *2 Timothy 2:11a-13*] in worship; however, surprisingly little is said concerning the hymnody of the apostolic churches.

It is not, therefore, that the churches did not sing; but it is rather that music was not the major focus of worship that it has become among the churches of this day.

What is obvious, and frequently disparaged in this day, is that prayer and preaching were ubiquitous marks of every meeting in the apostolic church.

In every instance where we have been given a description of worship among the churches of the New Testament, prayer and preaching are prominent.

Though as a Baptist congregation we have maintained our dedication to preaching as a hallmark of our faith, we have neglected corporate prayer.

In fact, the tendency among believers, even among those who occupy leadership positions in the church, is to think of prayer gatherings as extra-curricular activity in the life of the Body.

There is little power among the churches today, though there is a great deal of activity.

Few souls are saved, and few saints are burdened for the souls of the lost.

Everything else being equal, we will have as much power in the Christian life as we have prayer among the saints of God.

Perhaps it is time that we again make prayer a priority for the church.

*Praying Together was a Priority for the Apostles* — The Apostles by their example teach us that all who claim to lead God’s people must be convinced that among the most pressing responsibilities assigned to leaders is the responsibility to pray.

In this model, churches are taught that corporate prayer must be a priority.

The shepherds of the congregation must give themselves to pray for the people, and the flock must likewise accept the responsibility to pray together.

Many church members consider the pastor to be a sort of chief executive officer of the congregation.

Over the years of my ministry, I have reviewed a rather large number of “job descriptions” drafted by pulpit committees searching for a pastor.

Prominent in the list of qualifications that congregations seek is almost inevitably the ability to administer the work of the church.

I reviewed a few of the “job descriptions” posted by several sister churches.

They call for almost every imaginable qualification and duty by those the churches are seeking to hire—except for a commitment to prayer.

Yet, when the Apostles first began to seek help in the church, it was so they could “devote” themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” [*Acts 6:4*].

Why should the Apostles devote themselves to prayer?

What is the great requirement for prayer that drove these men to assert openly that this was their priority?

First, they knew that they needed God’s power if they would perform God’s work.

They needed divine authority if they were to confront the challenges arising from people who, though saved, were still attracted to the world in which they lived and who still tried to do God’s work with the tools of the world.

They knew that they needed divine unction—the anointing of the Spirit.

This knowledge drove them to seek the face of the Lord.

The Apostles lived among and ministered to people that were hostile to the Faith of Christ the Lord.

They would be harassed and hated by the very people that had crucified the Master.

We also live in a world that does not love our Lord Jesus Christ.

Instead of accommodating ourselves to the hostility of the world in which we live, we need to pray, seeking the face of the Lord and seeking His power.

When I preach, and when you enter to worship, we must come “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” [*1 Corinthians 2:4*].

Instead of trying to entertain people and being content with being liked, we need to so live and so prepare ourselves that the Spirit of God through us will “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement” [*John 16:8*].

Again, the Apostles realised the fallen state of all humanity.

Men are not converted because they are attracted by our winsome demeanour.

Neither is anyone converted because we sing lively songs.

Our knowledge of the most current views of philosophy or our familiarity with the latest scientific dogma will never turn the lost soul to faith in the Living Son of God.

We do not have a problem of a lack of knowledge or an inability to provide a “religious variety show” that will attract those who are lost.

Our problem is that the people to whom we are sent are “dead in trespasses and sin” [*Ephesians 2:1*].

Because they are dead, they must be wakened by the Spirit of God.

Paul realised that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” [*Ephesians 6:12*].

Instead, we struggle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” [*Ephesians 6:12*].

We are not fighting man; but we are fighting the devil.

Because we are engaged in spiritual warfare, we must commit ourselves to prayer.

I do not want to insult anyone, but neither do I wish to permit anyone to continue in his or her blindness and alienation from Christ the Lord.

God, through the Apostle Paul, has said that the lost live “in the futility of their minds” [*Ephesians 4:17*].

The condition of outsiders who imagine that what they think determines their relationship to God is described in the following verses.

“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” [*Ephesians 4:18, 19*].

We must not imagine that this describes what men once were in the ancient world, but that mankind has now changed for the better.

We must not think that we are now educated and sophisticated, and thus no longer thinking errantly about our righteousness.

Sinners are blind!

Their best thoughts are folly.

We dare not temper the warning that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” [*1 Corinthians 1:18*].

Indeed, the message we preach is idiocy to those who are lost [*1 Corinthians 1:21*].

Why are not more sinners converted to Christ?

Why do lukewarm Christians turn aside, seeking an easier way to righteousness?

Why do fellow Christians attempt to persuade us to embrace the latest entertainment as the means to advance the cause of Christ?

Is it not because we have forsaken looking to the Spirit of God to enable us to fulfil the ministry He gives?

Is it not because we have somehow convinced ourselves that the latest spiritual fad will have greater power to open the heart of the lost than does the presence of the Spirit of God with us?

Does the world choose to be righteous and holy because they like our music?

Do the lost of this world become godly because we give them a short sermon that makes them feel good about themselves?

We can modify our message, ensuring that it is ever so entertaining.

We can shorten the message so that it becomes merely a “sermonette for Christianettes.”

We can make the service quite pleasurable, telling stories and jokes and mouthing platitudes.

However, if the Spirit of God does not convict the soul of the lost, nothing will change them.

For far too long we have been content to simply inoculate the lost against damnation.

If the lost are to be saved, they must renounce all dependence upon their own goodness, recognising that Christ died because of our sin.

The lost must learn the reality of the apostolic declaration, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” [*Romans 7:18*].

The lost sinner must know that salvation is found in Christ alone, and that all human merit is excluded.

The Apostles also prayed because they understood the nature of salvation.

Salvation is not divine help; it is not merely heavenly assistance.