Prayer in the Night

Ben Miller

The Way of Prayer • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Big Idea: Worshipful prayer brings perseverance through times of trouble.

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Before I was the preaching pastor, I was the worship director here at Oak Hill… and also before that at Lancaster Bible College… and I used to have a little exercise that I would do with our worship teams… (they just loved me for this)...

I wanted our team members to grow in playing and singing MORE than the words and chords on a page...

And so one of the things that I would do is encourage the team to play through a song without music during rehearsals.

I’d either take the music… or if I could… I’d turn out the lights… and we’d play through the song...

And it didn’t matter if there were mistakes… what mattered was that they learned to FEEL the music… they learned to connect with the chord progressions... and the message of the lyrics at a deeper level...

You see, it’s one thing to play the notes of a song or sing the words by reading it off the page… it’s another thing to know that song so much that you can sing it in the dark.

I thought about this excerceise when I read this quote by Charles Spurgeon this week…

“Any one can sing in the day. When the cup is full, one draws inspiration from it; when wealth rolls in abundance around them, any one can sing to the praise of a God who gives an abundant harvest. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the skillful singer is the one who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by—who sings from their heart, and not from a book that they can see, because they have no means of reading, except from that inward book of their living spirit, where notes of gratitude pour out in songs of praise.” (Spurgeon, “Songs in the Night” https://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/2558.htm)

Of course Spurgeon is speaking figuratively here: by “day” he means when times in the life of a disciple when things are good and growth is evident… and by “night” he means the times of intense trial or opposition or suffering or even depression and despair (something with which Spurgeon himself was deeply familiar).

He is recognizing that every single disciple will have times where the sun is shining brightly… and times where the deep dark of night sets in.

And it’s in those times of darkness that the true song of our soul is expressed.

And we need to cultivate a heart that is ready to pray even when we cannot see the notes on the page… even when we cannot understand what God is doing...

We need to cultivate a heart that sings and prays from “the inward book of our living spirit.”

Really, that’s a big part of our goal in this series called “The Way of Prayer” - we are learning how to support one another by praying together on the path of discipleship.

And because we follow a Savior who suffered, that path with lead us through some hard times.

So you can think of this sermon series as an opportunity to learn the melodies of prayer and praise so that they are written on your heart, even when the dark of night of the soul sets in.

We are learning to make prayer our first response together.

We are learning to pray the type of worship-based prayer that responds, through the Spirit, to the unchanging truth that God has revealed in his word.

We are learning to engage our hearts in expectant prayer to God any time we are gathered.

We need to learn it when the lights are on… so that when things go dark, prayer becomes the familiar song of our hearts.

That’s what we are going to see in the life of the Apostle Paul and his teammate Silas today:

We are going to see how praying together with others during the “day” enabled them to keep worshiping God in prayer during a very difficult night.

We are going to see that praying together was Paul and Silas’ natural first response to extreme trial because it was already their first response before the trial came.

So here’s our big idea for today:

Big Idea: Fill your heart with worshipful prayer in the day so you can continue in worshipful prayer through the night.

We are in Acts 16 today… in this series, we are examining the many moments in the book of Acts where the early church is found praying...

So just to keep us up to speed on the context… [hopefully throughout the week you are working your way through the reading plan in the book of Acts which fills in all the gaps here…] but just to remind you… Last week we left off in Acts 14...

[Show Map, Full Screen on OBS] Acts 14 describes the end of Paul’s first missionary journey where Paul had traveled through Cyprus and Pamphylia and part of Galatia preaching the gospel and planting churches.

And so from there, Paul and Barnabas went back to Antioch and reported all that God had done.

They spent some time back in Antioch… leading in that church and even helping to settle some major disputes.

And from there, they decided that they should go back out on another missionary journey… first to encourage the existing churches and maybe plant some new ones.

But Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement… and so they parted ways (that happens sometimes)… sometimes God has a purpose in Christians going their different ways...

And Paul found a new teammate in Silas (or Silvanus as he’s referred to in other books of the New Testament).

They went and visited the churches that were already planted… but they had an intense desire to take the gospel into new Territory....

They wanted to go to Asia and Pamphylia… but the Spirit kept saying “no.” We don’t know HOW he said no, but they were obviously in tune with him enough to understand.

And instead of going to those places, the Spirit CLEARLY led them… through a vision... to go into Macedonia. And the first place they stopped was Philippi.

[Next Slide - Back to Picture in Picture on Screen]

That’s where we find them in Acts 16 today.

Now their custom on entering a city was to go to the Synagogue and preach first to the Jews…

However, most scholars believe that the Jewish population in Philippi was too small to sustain a synagogue…

So there must have been some tradition among the Jews… that when that was the case to go down by the river to pray...

Because that’s where Paul and Silas assume they will find some people praying… and they made first contact with a group of Jewish women...

Now I don’t want you to miss this: The gospel first came to those who were (to varying degrees) seeking the God of the Bible in PRAYER.

They hadn’t heard about Jesus yet… but they had read what we now call the Old Testament…

They had read the law that we now know that Jesus fulfilled…

They had read the prophets which pointed forward to Jesus…

and they knew that they should be PRAYING to THIS GOD... because THIS GOD was WORTHY... and they were needy...

That’s their posture when Paul and Silas found them… hands raised in prayer.

And one particular woman named Lydia came to know Jesus that day… along with all her household…

They were all baptized and then insisted that Paul and his team come to stay with her.

And her house became home base for this new work in Philippi.

But it’s interesting… if you look in verse 16, it also seems that the river continued to be a meeting place for this budding church plant.

In verse 16, we find Paul and his team and probably these new believers… we find them heading BACK to the place of prayer…

Going to the place of prayer seems to be a habit for them… part of their church culture right from the start...

And it was on the way to that place of prayer that they met some intense opposition.

First, a demon-possessed slave girl started following them… and taunting them...

And so Paul gets annoyed with the demon and casts it out of her.

Now that’s great for the girl… but here’s the problem: that demon helped her tell the future by the power of Satan.

And that power brought her owners money.

So when she loses the demon, they lose their money.. and that makes them angry.

When they get angry, they physically drag Paul and Silas before the Roman magistrates and falsely accuse them...

And the Roman Magistrates, apparently not asking enough questions, had them beaten with rods and thrown in jail.

It’s rare that going to a prayer meeting is that costly… but this time it was...

Now they find themselves beaten and bloodied and shackled to a prison wall alongside thieves and murderers.

That’s where we pick up in verse 25… look down in your Bibles at verse 25, “About midnight, Paul and Silas were despairing that they didn’t make it to their prayer meeting, And said, ‘I guess God must not want to hear from us. I guess we should just wallow in our sorrow and complain and give up.’” [is that what your Bible says???]

No… look at what they do in verse 25: [Read Acts 16:25]

They were on their way to a prayer meeting… they were redirected into a jail cell… and so they just had the prayer meeting in the jail cell.

Fill your heart with worshipful prayer in the day so you can continue in worshipful prayer through the night. [do you see it now???]

3 Reasons Why Worshipful Prayer Is Important when the Night Sets In

1) Worshipful Prayer realizes the presence of God in the night (v. 25, context in v. 13-24)

Explain: Notice the words, “About midnight.”

Luke is stating a fact… it was about midnight...

But he’s also painting a picture of their present reality… this is a pretty dark place.

Their muscles would have ached from being dragged into the marketplace.

Their backs were sore from the rods that had just landed on them…

They had planned a great atmosphere for their prayer meeting: a beautiful riverside where eager hearts were prepared to hear the gospel in the creation God had made…

And now they had been relocated to a moldy prison cell.

This is a legitimately challenging situation.

I don’t think any of us would blame them if they just didn’t feel like praying or singing much that night.

I don’t think any of us would think less of them if they were feeling a little defeated or depressed.

I wonder how many of us would think that God had abandoned us in that moment???

But here, in the middle of the night, their tune doesn’t change. They were praying and singing hymns to God. I want you to notice more three things about verse 25:

First I want you to notice that BOTH Paul and Silas were engaged in praying and singing. They were praying and singing TOGETHER.

Even here, in a Roman prison, corporate prayer was their priority.

They weren’t just praying in their heads… or singing in their hearts… for fear that someone might hear them...

They were lifting their voices TOGETHER to God. And we know that because other people are listening in.

They were encouraging one another… feeding off one another’s faith in God as it was poured out in worshipful prayer and song.

The EXACT activity that they were planning to do on the banks of the river outside Philippi, they are now busy doing in the prison cell.

Second, they are praying and singing hymns to God...

Their priority was NOT, “God get us out of here...”

Their priority was, “God, you are worthy.” This is WORSHIPFUL prayer and singing.

The way we know that is because a HYMN is a particular type of song...

HYMN does not mean “song that was written more than 50 years ago” or “song that was once written with notes above it in a book...” like we sometimes think today...

HYMN is a word that speaks to the CONTENT of the song… it means “song of praise.”

A HYMN is a song ABOUT GOD sung TO GOD.

They are not singing laments about their situation… they are singing hymns about God.

Laments are not wrong: the Bible is filled with them.

But HERE, they are occupying themselves with HYMNS of adoration.

And the singing is TIED to the praying with that word “AND”… we can infer that the praying is worship-based as well.

This was WORSHIPFUL prayer and singing.

This was prayer and singing that looked BEYOND the circumstance… beyond the atmosphere... to the God who never changes.

This was prayer and singing that MAGNIFIED THE LORD ABOVE the situation…

The third thing I want you to notice is that Luke makes sure to include that "the prisoners were listening"...

Paul and Silas’ response was remarkably different than the typical response to sitting in a jail cell at midnight.

This was a response that caught the attention of others.

They were having a unique affect on the people around them.

Let me just pause and ask you at this point: When people see you in the midst of trial, can they see your faith in God expressed in worshipful prayer?

Parents, “Your kids are watching how you pray when the darkness is thick.”

Believers, your unbelieving neighbors and extended families and coworkers are watching your response to trials: do you trust the God you say you believe?

Church member, you will build the faith of others in our church when you express your faith in hard times through worshipful prayer and singing.

Others need to be encouraged by your prayers and songs when the clock strikes midnight in your life.

Worshipful prayer recognizes God’s presence in the night.

It’s not that it’s wrong to ask God for help or deliverance… I don’t want you to hear me saying, “Don’t make requests to God.”

That would go against SO MUCH of what the Bible has to say about prayer.

But as we’ve been saying over and over… we must learn to seek God’s face before we seek his hand… because that’s how we understand what God’s hand wants to do.

Worshipful prayer has a particular affect on our soul: it takes our eyes off of the situation, and fixes them on God.

Let me illustrate this for you: when my younger kids wake up with a bad dream and are convinced that something might harm them, one of the things we do is to remind them that God is with them (even though Mommy and Daddy need to sleep in our bed)… and that God is BIGGER than anything they could be afraid of.

We pray with them and help them remember the presence of God.

And when they say, “I’m too afraid to go back to sleep,” I tell them, “I want you to start going through the ABCs of Knowing God…

And I just want you to remember who God is until you fall asleep.

THAT’S what worshipful prayer does for our hearts. It reminds us that God is WITH US even when life feels like a bad dream… and he is bigger than anything we could be afraid of.

It gets our eyes off of our situation and fixes them on God.

Worshipful prayer recognizes God’s presence in the night.

Now I find it very interesting that Paul and Silas were praying AND singing.

Apply: I think we sometimes forget the close connection between prayer and song.

David Parker and I have been talking about this a good bit lately: that spontaneous singing can be an important part of our times of prayer...

Whether it’s in our Gospel Communities… or at a prayer night like we’re having on March 7…

We just sang spontaneously as part of our last elder meeting prayer time and it was such a beautiful thing.

In that moment, you have to lay all pretense aside… don’t worry how you sound… just focus your heart on the one who is worthy of your song.

We want you to know… in times of prayer, SINGING is not off limits… you have PERMISSION (if you feel you need it) to lead us in song as long as it is in order with what we are doing.

In the end, we need to start viewing our singing AS praying.

When we sing, “You are worthy… you are worthy of your name,” we are PRAYING to God… and not only that… we are PRAYING in ONE VOICE in a way that we couldn’t do otherwise.

Singing enables us to unite our heats in prayer unlike any other form of prayer because we are all lifting our voice in total agreement at the same time.

As we sing on the average Sunday… when we are experiencing the “daytime” of the Christian life if you will… we can learn to pray and sing together when life gets dark… when things are hard.

I remember how much the songs of the church helped me through times like when we lost our first baby to miscarriage...

I distinctly remember singing the song, “The Greatness of our God” in church that next day… Keith Martin was leading and I was bawling my eyes out knowing how hard this was… but also how near God was.

I remember times when our praying and singing encouraged my soul through seasons of anxiety and despair...

I remember one particular time when we were singing the hymn, “Be Still My Soul” (which we need to get out again, by the way)...

And my soul finally finding stillness.

Worshipful prayer realizes the presence of God in the night.

And because worship acknowledges WHO GOD IS and WHAT GOD HAS DONE...

2) Worshipful prayer realizes the power of God in the night (v. 26-29)

Look at verses 26-29 [Read]

Explain: One minute they are praying and singing… the prisoners are listening… and the next minute the jail is shaking and their chains are falling off: THAT’S POWER!

Worshipful prayer realizes the power of God in the night

Now there are two distinct responses that Luke describes to this power: the Jailer and then Paul, silas and the other prisoners.

The Jailer is terrified… He’s been SLEEPING instead of listening to Paul and Silas’ concert of prayer and singing… he’s not ready for this moment.

And he’s ready to kill himself because he knows if the prisoners’ escaped, he’s a dead man anyway because his boss is literally going to kill him...

And even when Paul and Silas reassure him, he’s still trembling.

Paul and Silas, on the other hand, are confident... and interestingly enough, so are the other prisoners.

Paul reassures the jailer and tells him that ALL the prisoners are still there. They haven’t escaped.

I find that so interesting.

I’m not terribly surprised that Luke tells us that Paul and Silas’ didn’t escape (though I wouldn’t blame them if they did)…

But the other prisoners? I’d expect them to take advantage of the situation.

And yet I believe… because Luke was so concerned to tell us that the the prisoners were listening in verse 25… I believe it was CLEAR to the other prisoners that this was supernatural… that this event was in direct response to Paul and Silas’ prayers and songs.

… and they knew that they should follow this guy’s lead.

Here’s the point: Paul and Silas (and therefore the other prisoners) were ready to see the power of God for what it was because their hearts were prepared in worshipful prayer.

We don’t know exactly what words their prayers and hymns contained… but I’m sure they contained a big view of God...

And so when God then showed up in a big dramatic way, they aren’t surprised.

They are quick to realize that this is the POWER of God.

They know the source of their salvation. God's rescue doesn't surprise them.

Which is why they don’t try to escape… they wait to see what God wants to do next.

And I want to pause here and recognize… the powerful God who freed Paul and Silas is the same God we pray to today.

Again… we’ve been saying this a lot… Acts is mostly DESCRIPTIVE… it describes what God DID for the early believers…

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t understand the God we serve from the book of Acts.

Luke is not just describing stuff in order to tell us a good story and to have some nostalgia about what God did in the good old days of the church.

Luke is describing this stuff in order to reveal GOD in all his power.

God has not become LESS or MORE powerful since the book of Acts… he is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And we can EXPECT that he will work in powerful ways. We MUST expect that God will work in powerful ways.

Maybe not the EXACT ways that we see him working there… but POWERFUL ways nonetheless.

THIS IS the God we worship TODAY… and he wants us to KNOW who he is so much that he inspired a guy named Luke to write it down in Holy Scripture so that believers throughout the ages could be CONVINCED of what we have been taught.

Our God is the God who used songs of praise to shake prison walls and the chains of his people fall to the ground.

Not metaphorically… he REALLY did this.

THAT’S MY GOD… if you are a follower of Jesus, say that with me: “THAT’S MY GOD!”

Just because he doesn’t work in EXACTLY the same way in every situation DOES NOT mean that he won’t act in power.

And we should pray with the FULL KNOWLEDGE and EXPECTANCY that we worship a POWERFUL GOD.

I love the song that we learned this morning… here are the lyrics again:

You make mountains move You make giants fall You use songs of praise To shake prison walls And I will speak to my fear, I will preach to my doubt That You were faithful then, You'll be faithful now

The God who was faithful to hear the worship and the prayers of his people THEN… is the same God who is FAITHFUL to hear the worship and prayers of his people NOW.

And in the middle of the dark night, we can triumphantly sing… and expectantly pray, believing that he is going to work.

Again… not in some entitled way (I said this before: Expectant prayer is not the same as entitled prayer).

We are not praying, “God I DESERVE or DEMAND that you deliver me just like you did Paul and Silas.”

We are not presuming that we KNOW God’s will or that our prayer FORCES God’s hand to do whatever we’re asking.

That’s not expectant prayer… that’s entitled prayer.

But we are singing and praying with the full knowledge that OUR GOD is a powerful God.

OUR GOD is a God who loves when his people worship… and he responds when they pray.

He may not work in the SAME way every time… but he will work POWERFULLY every time.

He might not break you out of whatever trial you are going through… he might choose to leave you there and give you opportunities to make his glory known from that place...

The miracle might be the perspective or the endurance he gives...

It might honestly be the eternal life he promises on the other side of suffering and death…

But no matter what: God WILL reveal his power when you worship him… and you can stake your life on it… because that is who he is...

Worshipful prayer is one way we can speak to our fear and preach to our doubt.

Worshipful prayer says, “God, I know who you are. I might not see it in this dark night I’m going through, but this is who you’ve always been. This is who you will always be.”

And when we pray like THAT... and God works in whatever powerful way he chooses, we aren’t surprised.

And we will have a better understanding of what God is doing.

You see, Paul and Silas knew that God’s powerful rescue was not ultimately about them... it was about the Lord... it was about his gospel going to the lost.

It wasn't about THEIR escape from jail... it was about the jailer's escape from the prison of his sin.

The jailer calls for lights to illuminate the darkness… and he falls down at their feet… and they give him the light that illuminates his spiritual darkness.

Look down at verse 30… Read v. 30-34

3) Worshipful prayer realizes the priorities of God in the night. (v. 30-40)

Explain: The jailer brings them out of the jail cell… and not only that… he must have brought them to his house in order to bind their wounds and clean them up…

They go from inmates to honored guests in a matter of minutes.

And he asks this ever important question: “What must I do to be saved?”

That question is the spiritual equivalent of asking for lights so that he can see his way around the jail cell. And it’s the question every person SHOULD be asking...

If you do not know Jesus today… you are not only in a dark situation… you are BLINDED by your sin… you are in spiritual darkness that you will never understand on your own.

You can’t see the God for whom you were created.

You are like the jailer at midnight, lost in the dusty rubble of a darkened prison… unable to see the situation around you clearly.

The Bible says that everyone who is not in Christ is dead in their sin and destined for far worse that a bad day or some hard times.

We ALL have sinned against the infinitely holy God.

Our sins SEPARATE us from him for eternity… that’s Hell… eternal separation from the presence of God and any of his mercy.

And the only way that any of us can be saved is for the light of Jesus to make sense of your darkness:

Paul and Silas bring the spiritual light of the gospel to the jailer: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they go on to explain that in more detail, according to verse 32.

But the summary is this: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”…

You can’t save yourself from your sin and darkness.... But God CAN save you… he already did the work to save you… and you are hearing the message of his salvation right now in this moment.

God the Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life you could not live.

Jesus entered the darkness and rubble of your broken down world in order to rescue you from it.

Even though Jesus was perfect, he experienced God’s judgement for your sin…

In a moment, he experienced the agony of separation from God that he never EVER deserved.

Jesus died… but on the third day he rose from the dead to break you free from the chains of sin and death… and you can have new life in him.

God WILL SAVE you if you put all your trust in him. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”…

Acknowledge that HE is the only Savior… HE is the only Lord.

And allow that truth to change your life.

Not just believing “about” Jesus… not just believing in Jesus like he is the tooth fairy or the Easter Bunny...

Believing that he TRULY IS SAVIOR AND LORD...

I would URGE you to turn from your sin and trust Jesus TODAY if you never had before.

That’s what the jailer did. They preached the word of the Lord to his whole household… his whole household believed… and they were baptized that night.

We see again in the book of Acts: baptism is the first step of obedience after someone becomes a follower of Jesus. If you’ve never been baptized as a believer, we can fill up the tank and do it anytime… just talk to me!

But that dark night in a jail cell broke into bright daylight as a whole household saw the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ… believed and was baptized.

The jailer went from trembling to rejoicing in the matter of a few hours… all because Paul and Silas had their hearts set on the priorities of God in worshipful prayer.

They knew the HOLINESS of God.

They were looking for HIS KINGDOM COME, HIS WILL BE DONE.

I want you to understand… Paul and COULD HAVE escaped back in the jail cell… but they knew God had something more for them here...

They COULD HAVE just shared the gospel with the jailer right on the spot and gotten out of town... but instead, they go to his house and share the gospel with as many as will hear.

Why? Because their hearts were set on the priorities of God through worshipful prayer.

God does not answer our prayer JUST so that we can get out of hard situations... God answers our prayer so that both we and others will come to know him more.

Clearly Paul and Silas were more concerned about God’s glory on display through the gospel than their escape from prison…

Their prayer wasn’t about their deliverance… it was about God’s worship. And they prioritized others sharing in that worship.

Not only that… they prioritized the future security of this young church plant in Philippi…

Let’s finish out the story from verse 35. Read v. 35-40

The Romans realize that Paul and Silas aren’t your average prisoners… there is something supernatural about these guys...

And so the Romans just want to get them out of their hair...

There is an attempt to skirt this under the rug.

And Paul and Silas COULD have said, "Whew... we dodged THAT bullet. Let's take our cloaks and get out of here!"

So why didn't they? Why did they make a fuss about being Roman citizens NOW… and not BEFORE they were beaten and put in jail?

Did they just want revenge? Did they just want to stick it to the man and fight for their rights? I don’t believe that was their motivation here.

You see, the effect of the Romans simply releasing Paul and Silas would be that the Romans would save face, and the church would bear the shame for what happened in the marketplace the day before… and for the earthquake that night.

Further, the Jews would continue to be emboldened and more persecution of the church would come.

So the future witness and security of the church would benefit if the Romans had to fall on their own sword for beating innocent men… specifically Roman citizens.

The Romans wouldn’t care if they were beating non-Roman citizens… to be Roman was to be human… and anything less was not human.

But to beat a Roman citizen… that could get them in trouble with Caesar himself.

And so Paul and Silas stand up for their rights.

I want you to understand that Paul only fought for his rights when it was advantageous to the gospel and to the witness of the church.

We need to learn that as believers.

And this was one of those moments.

At the same time, this was a gutsy request. It could have brought MORE trouble on Paul and Silas.

They are like a dog who is nipping at the hand that is releasing them from the cage.

So where did they get their confidence to persevere in the face of potential personal harm?

I believe it was the direct result of God's answer to prayer the night before

They knew God's protection... they knew his priorities to use this event to save people and advance the gospel...

They knew that it would embolden the church if they stood up to the Roman authorities in this situation.

It would give this new, fragile church plant a more solid root system if they stood up against the injustice that they had experienced.

And they knew God would protect them no matter what… because he had answered their prayer the night before.

Worshipful prayer realizes the priorities of God in the night.

Illustrate: Have you ever been going through something and been like, “God, I don’t understand what you are doing here! I don’t understand WHY you are choosing to work in this way!?!?!”

It’s not wrong to ask why… the Psalms do that a lot...

But whenever the Psalms ask why, they also acknowledge that God has reasons that are bigger than us.

He has thoughts that are higher than ours.

He has power that is greater than ours.

And he KNOWS how to work all things out for HIS GLORY AND for the good of those who love him.

And THAT’S why we seek him in prayer… to get our hearts singing from his sheet music.

Apply: So often we can be short-sighted in our prayers.

We ask God to work so that we can have an easier life...

We ask God to deliver us simply so that we don’t have to be in the trial anymore.

But any time God works powerfully in our lives, he wants to use our deliverance for the sake of delivering others too. For the sake of creating a people for himself.

For the sake of the worship of his name.

And WORSHIP-BASED PRAYER helps us realize that.

As you pray, seek the priorities of God by seeking his worship first.

I want to leave you with this question: Are your prayers seeking your own escape from present suffering, or are they preparing you and others to worship God when responds in power?

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