Evangelism God's Way, Part 6

Introduction: The Unseen Word 'Evangelism' and the Church's Mandate

0:04 I read one verse of Scripture, then we will pray.

0:08 Our Lord Jesus, speaking to His own gathered about Him just prior to His ascension, back to the right hand of the Father, said, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Let us pray together.

0:42 Our Father, we have asked You to give us Samuel's ear, Samuel's heart, Samuel's mind.

1:00 O Father, if You would be pleased, You do that as we come to Your Word. You alone can measure the effect in our individual lives and in our life together as a company of Your people. Grant us then the answer to our prayer for our good, for the good of the needy and lost world, and above all, for Your glory and praise.

1:36 I believe it will surprise many of you to know that the Word, the word evangelism, is nowhere to be found in the New Testament.

1:52 It is nowhere to be found in that English form or in what would be its Greek form.

2:01 Now, the word evangelism is a perfectly legitimate word to use in describing the activity of communicating the euangelion, the evangelion, that is the evangel, the good news, of God's salvation and Jesus Christ. It's not an illegitimate or a naughty word. And while the word evangelism is not found in the New Testament, the verb to evangelize, euangelizo or euangelizomai, is found dozens of times,

2:43 and the noun rendered evangelist, that is, is one who is officially recognized and set apart to proclaim the gospel, is found three times. And further, while the noun evangelism is not found in the New Testament, the duty and privilege of the church to be engaged in the activity of aggressively communicating the good news of God's salvation is made a burden, abundantly clear. And in an attempt to intensify and to augment

3:25 all of our present individual and church-based evangelistic endeavors, we as a church are in the midst of preparation to begin three months of bi-weekly, geographically structured, home-based evangelistic Bible study. Now, that's a mouthful, but that gives you a description of what we are about. And there are many aspects of the preparation for this endeavor that are going on behind the scenes, as well as others that are more evident even to a casual visitor.

4:08 If you've been at our prayer meetings over the last four weeks, you would certainly know something is going on in conjunction with evangelistic, home-based Bible study. And what I've been doing in the ministry of the Word for the past few Lord's Days is also a vital part of seeking to prepare us for this new and intensified gospel enterprise and to buttress all of our present and future evangelistic endeavors. And what I'm doing is seeking to set before you some biblical perspectives concerning the gospel of the Lord. And I'm going to do that.

4:49 And I'm going to do that. And I'm going to do that. And I'm going to do that. And I'm going to do that.

Recap: The Taproots of God-Honoring Evangelism

4:49 In God-honoring, Spirit-empowered, evangelistic endeavors. Now let me attempt to give you in just a few minutes the heart of what we have considered in the first five messages. I indicated that the organizing metaphor would be that of a tree. A tree deeply rooted in rich, nourishing soil.

5:18 And I identified that soil as the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. If our tree of evangelistic endeavor is indeed to be God-honoring and we have reason to expect it will be Spirit-empowered, it must be firmly rooted in the scriptures of the Old and of the New Testaments. And then having established what the soil of that tree is, I then began to open up in your hearing what I called the taproots of the tree. If the trunk and the main branches and the leaves of the tree are to be labeled as the evangelistic endeavor,

6:04 what are the taproots which ought to support and nourish that trunk, its branches, and its leaves and any fruit that may be borne upon it? Well, I have suggested that there are at least three main Spirit-empowered evangelistic endeavors. Taproot number one was this, that we must have a biblical understanding and personal conviction concerning who and what men we seek aggressively to reach men and women, boys and girls with the gospel.

6:47 We must have a biblically informed understanding and a heart conviction concerning who and what they really are. What they are as uniquely created in the image of God, what they are as really fallen and ruined in Adam, what they are as savable and possibly elect in Christ, what they are as the objects of the loving mind and heart of Jesus when he gave to his church in perpetuity the evangelistic mandate. Then we considered the second taproot, and I identified it in this way,

7:30 that you and I, who would bring the gospel to transforming power of that gospel that we seek to communicate,

7:41 we must be the gospel in flesh. If we would open our mouths and give the gospel in words, and expect it to do anything more than create cynicism, we must have the qualification, and I repeat it, that there is warrant, at times a duty, to communicate the gospel. People with whom we've had no or little previous contact, and with whom we will have little or no subsequent contact, there is a warrant for that ordinarily, and certainly in this gospel endeavor for which I'm seeking to prepare us in this ministry, we will have sustained

8:23 contact, and it is vital you and I,

8:34 the transforming power of the gospel, and I can't even give you the major text, that I expounded, nor give you the heads of the particular areas that I addressed as unusually crucial areas, if we are to have any grip upon the consciences of those in our own generation to whom we bring the gospel. Then, we began last Lord's Day to open up the third taproot, and it is this. The necessity of earnest and persevering prayer for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon all of our evangelistic endeavors. Necessity

9:17 earnest and persevering prayer for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon all of our evangelistic endeavors. And in beginning to demonstrate the biblical composition of this third taproot, last Lord's Day, I said I would do so under two major headings. Heading number one, I would show the reasons for the necessity of the Spirit's presence and power in our evangelistic endeavors. And then secondly, I would demonstrate the intimate relationship between prayer and God's giving of the Holy Spirit in His intensified

10:00 presence and power. And so, last Lord's Day, I opened up that first heading in your hearing, and I said that the necessity for the Spirit's presence and power in our evangelistic endeavors rests down upon two realities. Number one, the true condition of those whom we desire to evangelize. Only God the Holy Spirit, the person of the Godhead, can quickly open the eyes of the blind, subdue rebels, and overcome their passionate love.

10:39 In those to whom we bring the gospel, that necessitate the gracious intrusion of the Holy Ghost in presence and power, and the operations of the Holy Spirit in the heightened measure, if we are to be effective in bringing the gospel to them, it is the Spirit who alone can replace our natural lovelessness with a genuine compassion for those who are not our Savior. It is the Spirit alone who can overcome our

11:24 natural timidity, the Spirit alone who can impart to us the wisdom to speak right words in every evangelistic setting. Well, now this morning I want to consider with you the second heading in attempting to demonstrate the biblical composition of this third taproot of God-honoring, Spirit-empowered evangelistic endeavors. Having demonstrated that the necessity for the Spirit's presence and power grows out of the true condition of those to whom He would minister, and certain conditions in us, I want now to demonstrate the intimate relationship

Qualifications: Refuting False Notions of Prayer

12:09 between prayer and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon our evangelistic endeavors. And now as I so often do on the front end of making this case, intimate relationship between our

12:33 nature, Spirit, in heightened measures of His presence and power, I want to make some qualifications. Pastor, you're always making qualifications. Yes, I am. Because that's my responsibility as a pastor, to mark out a course of truth in which we don't err to the left or to the right. And that

12:57 qualification comes in two prongs. The first is the refutation of an unfounded statement. I've heard over the years of my Christian life, and I have read statements such as these. God does nothing, but He does it in answer to the prayers of His people. How many have ever heard or read

13:18 something along those lines? You know what's wrong with that statement? It just ain't true.

13:25 For anyone to say God does nothing except He does it in answer to the prayers of His people, one would have to have an explicit text in which God Himself, who alone knows all that He does, and the connection with what He does and why He did it, for that to be true. You see, you would have to be omniscient and know everything that God ever did in every circumstance throughout the whole history of the world, and then to be able to penetrate the cause and effect relationship. Anyone want to claim that?

14:00 I sat at my desk and I said, you know, the first verse of the Bible knocks that thing right out into the ocean. Who was there to pray that God might make a world? Nobody. God did that massive work, the work of creation of the heavens and the earth.

14:16 No creature around to ask Him. So to say God does nothing but He does it in answer to the prayers of His people is proven to be false in the first verse of the Bible. Alright? So, I want to give that refutation of an unfounded statement so that none of you think in any way that I'm sympathetic with that.

14:34 And then secondly, I want to give a disclaimer of a pagan perspective concerning prayer. A disclaimer of a pagan perspective concerning prayer. And that's just my way of stating what Jesus states in Matthew chapter 6. Turn there with me if you will, please.

14:54 As our Lord begins to give His people instruction concerning prayer, He says in Matthew 6 and verse 8. I'm sorry, verse 7. And in your praying, do not use vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. In other words, one of the concepts that drives the devotional exercises of pagans, those who worship the gods that they make, is that if they can just pile up enough verbiage in their prayers, they will batter down

15:38 the reluctance of their gods and get them in a hammerlock until they cry uncle and do what they want. And He said, don't belight them. They think they shall be heard for their much speaking. In other words, they view the accumulation of their words as having significant influence by the mere accumulation of them.

16:02 And you see a classic example of that in the incident with Elijah and the false prophets on Mount Carmel. I was re-reading that the other day, or just yesterday, in preparation for today. And you remember the story.

16:16 There the false prophets, are and the sacrifice is all laid out. And so they begin to pray. And they pray. And they pray. And throughout the day, until they

16:26 are cutting themselves with knives and dancing around the altar. And the only image that came to me, they must have looked like a bunch of monkeys, mainlining and fetting them. A bunch of monkeys on speed, jumping around cutting themselves. Why?

16:42 They think they're going to be heard for their much speaking. And with artless simplicity, when it's time for the man of God, to come, he prays that simple, pointed prayer that brings down fire out of heaven. Consuming the sacrifice, licking up the water. Lord God of Israel. I want to

17:07 distance myself and distance you, the people of God, from any pagan perspective regarding prayer. It often expresses itself in this little statement. Little prayer, little blessing. More prayer, more blessing.

17:23 Much prayer, much blessing. There's a little element of truth in that, but there's more error than truth in it. It can so easily flow into this pagan perspective. I will be heard for my much speaking.

Evidence 1: The Experience of Our Lord Jesus

17:40 So, I make qualification the repudiation of a false notion. Now then, do I dare assert that if we are to know the blessing of God in the trunk,

18:00 of our evangelistic endeavor, it must be supported and fed by a taproot persevering prayer for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Where does the Bible teach us that there is an intimate connection between that earnest, persevering prayer of the people of God and God's gracious sending forth of His Spirit in His intensified augmented presence, and heightened power. Four lines of evidence to lay before you. First of all, we shall see this in the experience of our Lord Jesus. Secondly,

18:44 in the experience of the 120 in preparation for Pentecost, and the persecuted apostles in Acts 4. Then, thirdly, we shall see it in the explicit teaching of our Lord, and fourthly, in the explicit teaching of the apostles. So, four lines of evidence, evidence, line of evidence, number one, this is clearly seen in the experience of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me, please, now to Luke's Gospel, chapter 3.

19:18 Luke's Gospel, chapter 3.

19:21 Our Lord was conceived by the power of the Spirit. It was the Spirit upon Him and in Him that cultivated every single grace that was manifested in His human nature. It's an awful, not a shallow thinking about the development of the human nature of Christ. And He took true humanity to Himself without any sin, but it was undeveloped humanity. He grew in

19:53 wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. And in that growth and development, the Spirit was continually operative in Him and upon Him. However, when He is about to be officially set apart for His messianic role, as God's appointed and anointed prophet, priest and king, following the pattern of the Old Testament, when one did not assume the role of priest until age 30, our Lord Jesus comes to John's baptism. He comes to a sinner's ordinance. John

20:31 says there's some incongruity. Lord, what are you coming here to be baptized of me? I have need to be baptized of you. And the Lord Jesus said, no, it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.

20:43 John, I am going to hear publicly and formally before all eyes take the place of sinners. I'm going to declare that my mission is one that I cannot accomplish apart from being identified with sinners. I am the one whom John pointed to, Lamb of God, who will bear away the sins of the world, and I will bear them away as the representative sinner. And with no stain of personal sin, he undergoes this watery rite to identify himself with those whom he came to save, and secondly, to prefigure the nature of that work

21:26 that will be the culmination of his saving work. He calls his death upon the cross, remember, a baptism. He said, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am constrained until it. So he comes to the ordinance of baptism, and we read in verse 21 of Luke, these words.

21:51 Now it came to pass when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also having been baptized, heaven was opened, his spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, you are my beloved son, in whom I am well. Standing in the waters of Jordan, dripping wet with water. What is

22:35 he doing? Luke, to which he has been immersed, he is, and that it is as he is praying in first, and the holy descended of bodily dove. He is,

23:07 and the spirit, where the significance may be, the order is clear. An intimate connection between the praying of our, and the descendant of the spirit upon him in power, equipping him for his messianic time. So that later on when the apostles preach, and give a thumbnail sketch of his life history, they say, Jesus of Nazareth, anointed with the connection. Why

23:49 is Jesus praying? Well, it would be foolish to be dogmatic where scripture is not clear. But may I suggest an answer? That there There is a close connection between his praying and the coming of the Spirit is indisputable.

24:07 The text leaves us that information. But what is the possible connection? Let me suggest an answer. Our Lord Jesus soaked his mind and soul with the Old Testament Scriptures.

24:22 That's evident in his ministry. Constantly quoting the Scriptures. Constantly deriving from the Scriptures personal direction. Constantly deriving from the Scriptures answers.

24:35 To the most knotty questions raised by his adversaries. Continually filled with his Bible. Not by having poured into his human mind. His divine mind with all of its full knowledge of the Scriptures.

24:52 For he was the author and the giver of them. But he accumulated them the same way we do. By study. By meditation.

25:02 In one of the beautiful Messianic passages in Isaiah it says. You. You wake my ear morning by morning. You've given me the ear of one who is taught.

25:12 Our Lord Jesus studied and meditated upon the Scriptures. And he knew well all of those Scriptures that said what Messiah would be and do. And how he would be equipped for that being and that doing. And among them were the promises of Isaiah.

25:33 And I want us to look at a couple of them. Hang in there with me. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1. There shall come forth a shoot out of the stalk of Jesse.

25:50 And a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit of counsel and might.

26:04 The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. Here. There is prophetic certainty.

26:15 When that shoot comes out of the stalk of Jesse. And that branch out of his roots that will bear fruit. That's a Messianic prophecy. It is absolutely certain that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

26:33 Now Isaiah 42 and verse 1. Notice a similar emphasis. Jehovah speaks and says concerning his servant. Another Messianic prophecy.

26:46 You have the servant songs in Isaiah that point to the Savior. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. You hear in the echoes of Jordan. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

27:09 My servant in whom I delight. I have the power. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

27:20 He will not cry nor lift up his voice nor cause it to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break. Directly fulfilled and quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in our Lord Jesus. But notice the certainty.

27:33 So certain that it's put in the prophetic past tense. I have put my Spirit upon him. If Jehovah did not place his Spirit upon his servant. If Jehovah did not place his Spirit upon his servant.

27:43 He would have been a liar. He says I have put my Spirit upon him. I will. Isaiah 11.

27:52 I have. And then Isaiah 61.1. The passage that Jesus himself quotes in conjunction with his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth when he goes into the synagogue.

28:05 Isaiah 61.1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because the Lord has put my Spirit upon him.

28:13 He has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives. And the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

28:28 Now what do we learn from those passages? We learn what Jesus learned. As he studied his Old Testament scriptures he knew that as God's appointed servant. As God's messianic servant.

28:42 Messianic prophet, priest, and king. It was absolutely certain that he would be equipped for his task by a peculiar, a special indument of the Holy Spirit from Jehovah. You persuaded of that. So when it comes time to undertake in an official way that role and those manifold tasks.

29:07 What does he do? He's standing in Jordan. Dripping wet. From the waters of his baptism.

29:17 And he does not presume that this empowering. This anointing. This indument of the Spirit will come to him automatically because the Father promised it. Because the Father even could speak of it in the past tense.

29:35 I have put my Spirit upon him. But he uses the very promises of God. As the basis. He preaches the promise.

29:48 As I now formally, officially, and publicly identify myself with sinners. As I hereby, publicly and formally and openly take upon myself that path that will lead to my baptism of agony and forsakenness upon the cross. Oh my Father. Fulfill your promise.

30:10 Grant me that anointing and that empowering of the Spirit which you promised the last time our God spoke. Grant me the gospel that is more powerful than any other gospel. And that is our life. Our life.

30:17 Our life. Our life. Our life. Our life.

30:17 The promise would be my portion. Having been baptized and praying, it opens as though the Father says, My son, I hear your prayers. You've pressed my promises and my spirit down upon you. And that John and others who may have seen, we don't know.

30:43 But for John, at least we read in John 1, it was a validation. Revelation, as the Spirit takes temporarily the visible, physical form of the dove upon our Lord Jesus. Having been baptized, heavens are opened, and the Spirit descends upon the Lord Jesus.

31:14 Now, as I say, I can't be dogmatic and say that the substance of our Lord's prayers were the very promises of Isaiah. But I'm personally persuaded they were. I can. I can't tell you.

31:29 You must be persuaded as well.

31:33 Now, you see the application to us, dear people. Here is the sinless Son of God. Perfect humanity. And yet, He does not presume that He will be equipped for His God-given task apart from this endowment and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

32:00 And for that, He prays. And God hears. And answers His prayer. How much more do we, in all of our creaturely dependantness, and with the peculiar liabilities of our remaining sin, how desperately do we need that?

Evidence 2: The Experience of the 120 and Persecuted Apostles

32:25 The mission to which God has called us, as a church and as a people, to be His witnesses in the areas, in the areas, in the areas, in which He has appointed for us. So I lay my case out, first of all, the intimate connection between prayer and the giving of the Spirit in heightened measures of His presence and power from the experience of our Lord Jesus. But then secondly, in the experience of the 120 and the threatened apostles, I really worked to try to get a phrase, a statement that was more condensed than that, and I just, I just couldn't come up with one.

33:10 I was still working on it, driving here this morning, saying, Lord, isn't there some way the Jerusalem church? But I said, no, that's too generic. So I've got to give you what I've got, all right? Turn with me, please, to the Gospel of Luke, again, the last chapter.

33:36 And here we read, after the Lord gives them what is commonly called another version of the Great Commission in verses 44 through 47. Then He says in verse 44, You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you, that's the promise of the Holy Spirit, but wait in the city until you be clothed with power from on high. He's laid out their task, but He said, now look, don't rush forth to do the task yet, wait in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. A direct response.

34:18 A direct reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Then we read that He lifts up His hands, blesses them, He ascends back into heaven. Then look at verse 52. And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

34:40 Now keep that in mind when we turn to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. Here we read with regard to a gathering. Now the 120 included the apostles and named some of the women and even the mother of our Lord.

35:02 What were they doing? Verse 14, These all, with one accord, continued steadfastly in prayer with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. So Luke, the same author, says they were continually in the temple blessing and praising God, and now he says that with one accord, they continued steadfastly in prayer. And where were they doing?

35:25 that, verse 13, and when they were come in, they went into an upper chamber where they were abiding. Well, were they continually in the temple, or were they continually in the upper room? Well, it's not either or, it was both. They were splitting their time between going into Jerusalem and having glory hallelujah meetings, blessing and praising God for everything that had happened, then coming back and gathering in this special place called this upper chamber and praying. Now, some people give the notion that between

35:54 the Ascension and Pentecost, ten days, all they were doing was stretched out flat on the floor, agonizing in prayer for ten days. That is silly, to say the least. No, they weren't doing that. There was a mixture of activity, and even in the midst of that, they conducted a business meeting, verse 15 and following, and selecting a substitute and a replacement for Judas. So there were these various activities, but one thing is clear.

36:22 In that ten-day period from the Ascension of the Lord, they were doing a business meeting to the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. There was concentrated, intense, earnest, persevering prayer as a major activity. All right? We're safe to say that from the text of Scripture. It was a major activity. All the Lord had said to them was, wait in

36:48 the city. He didn't say agonize in prayer. He didn't tell them that they had to fast. He didn't know.

36:55 He just said, wait in the city. That's all he said, was wait. And in the parallel passage, same thing in Acts 1-4, look at it. And being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, you heard from me, for John indeed baptized with water, but you should be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days since. No command to pray. Just wait. Go back to the city, you

37:22 wait, and the Spirit will be given. You see that? Here's the promise. The Spirit will be given.

37:25 You must wait. Don't go out until the Spirit comes. However, they take the promise and the command to wait, and they draw this conclusion. Here the promise of the Father has been given.

37:43 Our blessed Lord Jesus says that promise is about to be fulfilled. He has told us to wait in Jerusalem and apparently didn't tell them how long, did not connect the dots and say, and in putting together, your Old Testament typology in the various feasts, you can expect him to come on Pentecost. There's no indication in the text of Scripture. Now, whether they had some intimation, I don't know. I don't know. But this much is clear. The Lord says the promise is going to be fulfilled.

38:15 You wait until it is fulfilled, and they connect the dots and say, wait a minute. If we are to stay in Jerusalem until the promise is fulfilled, and the promise is certain, this is not a call to presumption, and just sitting back and saying, God promised it, God will do it, that's the end of it. No, they make that the basis of their intense, earnest, persevering prayer. And it is in the context of eminent prayerfulness that the Spirit of God comes, yes, in His unique, once for all, non-repeatable dimensions of His coming,

38:58 on the day of Pentecost. But it's very interesting. We read in chapter 2 and verse 1, when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. It doesn't say they were praying at the time. Suddenly there came from heaven the sound of a rushing mighty

39:15 wind and filled all the house where they were lying on the floor and groaning. No, that's the picture I was given as a young Christian. You want the Holy Spirit in power? Stretch yourself out on the ground and groan.

39:28 And they were sitting. A very, very unheroic position. They were sitting. What were they doing? I don't know. It just says they were sitting. You're sitting. Like you do. You're

39:39 sitting. Nobody here, nobody here wants a badge because you're sitting. And where they're sitting, God comes. Ah, yes, but what was the climate into which God came? It was the

39:54 climate of this eminent prayerfulness. Verse 14 of chapter 1, these all with, one accord, continued steadfastly in prayer. And though we do not have chapter and verse to say they were doing precisely what their Lord did, taking the previous sure and certain promises of the coming of the Spirit and making them the basis of their prayers, I think we have every reason to believe with some measure of confidence that they took the pattern of their Lord. They took the pattern of their Lord and internalized it for themselves. And no little part of that

40:36 praying was saying, Oh, Father, you have given the promise of the coming of the Spirit. Your beloved Son in our Savior who's gone back to your right hand told us that promise is to be fulfilled. We are to wait until it is fulfilled. Oh, Father, fulfill it. Oh, Father,

40:56 grant it. Come in the power and grace of your Spirit. Now, I say again, there are many things regarding Pentecost that make it a unique and unrepeatable redemptive event. Just as we do not expect a repetition of the Incarnation, we do not expect a repetition of the Crucifixion, of the Resurrection and the Ascension, we do not expect a repetition of Pentecost. Yet, yet, the abiding principle is there. The abiding

41:31 principle is there. The 120 don't presume simply because it is certain that God will grant His promise. But the promise and the certainty form the ground for believing earnest persevering prayer, not a basis of presumption and no prayer. But then thirdly, trying to demonstrate and persuade you that there is an intimate connection between prayer and the giving of the Spirit.

Evidence 3: The Explicit Teaching of Our Lord Jesus

42:02 Not only do we see it in the experience of our Lord and the experience of the 120, but in the experience of a couple of the apostles in their first open opposition. And here I ask you to turn to Acts chapter 4. Peter and John have been arrested, arraigned before the Sanhedrin, threatened and released. And what do they do? Look at verse 23. And being

42:32 let go, they came to their own company. Verse 23. And they came to their own company. And they came to their own company. And they

42:35 came to their own company. And they came to their own company. And they came to their own company. Now who was their own company? People often assume that was the whole church. I don't

42:42 think so. And I can give you reasons for that. I'll give you one or two when we come further in the passage. But they come to their own company. I believe that that's the company

42:51 of the apostles. And they report all that the chief priest and the elders said unto them. And they, when they heard it, lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, O Lord. And they began to pray.

43:06 And the first part of their prayer is one in which they obviously get their minds and hearts filled afresh with the magnitude and the grandeur of God himself. O Lord, you that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them is, who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David, your servant, did say, and then they quote from Psalm 2, of a truth in this city against your holy servant Jesus, they did exactly what you said they would do. Verse 29, And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings. Grant unto your servants to speak your word with all boldness. The unique prerogative of the apostles in that setting.

43:51 Grant unto your servants to speak with all boldness. While, limited to the apostles, you stretch forth your hand to heal, and signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. Verse 31, And when they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

44:23 You see the connection? Here's the opposition. It drives them to pray. They pray and cry to God. God answers by filling them afresh with the Spirit. The same ones who were there

44:36 in the day of Pentecost. Pentecost. Filled with the Spirit. They receive a fresh outpouring and empowering of the Holy Spirit. And the result of it is this. They speak the word of God with boldness. Prayer

44:52 again between earnest, persevering prayer and the giving of the Spirit in power. Then my next line of evidence is to be found in the explicit teaching of the Lord Jesus. And some of you perhaps have already anticipated where we're going. Luke chapter 11. Is there an intimate connection between prayer and the giving of the Spirit?

45:26 Here in Luke chapter 11, we have the explicit teaching of our Lord Jesus. Here's the setting. Verse 1, Came to pass as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. Have you ever wondered what must it have been like to hear Jesus' prayer? Never had to hear him confess a sin. He was worshiping. What must it have been

46:01 like to hear the Son of God, who knew the Father perfectly? He said, no one knows the Father save the Son. What must praise be like from someone who fully knows all the attributes of God, undimmed by a sinful eye? You want something to wean you from all the tawdry junk that occupies your mind and your eyeballs in front of the boob tube? Just sit

46:35 for a half hour. Just sit for a half hour. Just sit for a half hour. Just sit for a half an hour and think about something like that. What would Jesus' praises have been like, fully

46:44 knowing the Father, in all the glory of his marvelous attributes, spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth? What would it be like to hear the Lord Jesus rehearsing all the glories of his Father? But anyway, they heard him. We can only think what it must have been like. They knew. They heard

47:09 him. And when he was done, they heard him. And when he was done, they heard him. And when they were done, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. We saw John teaching his disciples,

47:15 Lord, we've heard you, and we need to be taught to pray. Your prayers have exposed ours as being so shabby, so banal, so juvenile. Lord, teach us to pray. And the Lord responds, and then he gives them, in the response, notice three things. He gives them a pattern for

47:35 the substance of their prayers in verses two to four. And he said unto them, when you pray, say, and here's a pattern for the substance of their prayers. And then in verses five to ten, he gives a picture of the spirit in which they are to pray. And that picture is the parable of the friend who goes to his friend at midnight to get some bread because he's had a friend that's come to him, and he's got nothing in the cupboard. And in that

48:03 eastern context, that would be the most insulting thing, to have a friend show up at your door at any time and have nothing to put on the table for him. So when he goes to his friend at midnight, he knocks on the door, and he gets blown off, he keeps pounding. I mean, the guy just finally just says, you know, either I get no sleep the rest of the night, or give this dude something to go home and give to his friend. And then the Lord draws the application. Notice, after giving the pattern for the substance of our

48:31 prayers in verses two to four, a picture of the spirit of our prayers, they are to be earnest and persevering. Then there is a peculiar process. The promise with a specific focus to our prayers in verse 13, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Everything he's taught about prayer comes to this focal point in the promise of verse 13.

49:14 How much more shall your Father give the Holy Spirit to whom? To the ones who are asking. There is a present tense verb, to the ones who are asking. Asking how? Like the friend

49:28 who came to his friend at midnight with earnestness, with perseverance, until he obtained what he needed to take back home. What a promise. What a promise. Why are we asking as we anticipate this endeavor?

49:44 Oh God, send your Holy Spirit upon us. Fill us with something of love that mirrors the heart of our Savior. Lord, fill us with your Spirit to overcome our timidity and our shyness and our wretched shame of you. Lord, come upon us by your Spirit that we may know how to winsomely and pointedly and lovingly and persuasively present the gospel to our lost friends.

50:14 Why are we asking for the Holy Spirit? Do we have tingles up and down our spine? No! We're asking that God would grant us his Spirit in fresh and copious measures, because we want some bread to set before needy wayfarers. And we say, I've got nothing to set before.

50:35 Lord, give us bread. Give us the bread of holy love, of holy boldness, of holy utterance. That's what we're asking God to do. And dear people, as we do, we have a marvelous promise. How much more? We twisted, perverted, selfish, evil parents,

50:54 we know how and delight to give good gifts to our children. How much more? How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those asking for his work, not only in us, but in sinners, opening blinded eyes, quickening the dead, liberating the castawayed, captives, subduing rebel wills, revealing Jesus as precious? As I stand here looking out into the faces of some of you, that's one of the most frustrating things. I say,

51:30 oh God, if you'd just give me the power for three minutes to show blind sinners how lovely Jesus is, how worthy he is of their trust and their love and their undivided affection, it would spoil them, spoil them all. Nonsense to which you give your life would drop off in a moment. There's only one person who can do that. Thank God he can do it. And we need to cry with this promise in our hands.

Evidence 4: The Explicit Teaching of the Apostle Paul

52:06 How much more shall your Father give? But then, finally, think of the intimate relationship between prayer and the giving of the Spirit in increased measures, not only in the example of our Lord, the example of the hundred and twenty and the persecuted apostles, in the teaching of the Holy Spirit, but also in the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Not only in the teaching of our Lord, but finally in the teaching of particularly the Apostle Paul. Turn with me to two passages of Scripture. First one is Ephesians chapter

52:37 three. Ephesians chapter three and verse fourteen. I always take comfort. Look at the first words of chapter three. For this cause I, Paul, what are the first words of verse

52:57 fourteen? For this cause, he started out to say what he's saying here in verse fourteen way back in verse fourteen. He started out to say what he's saying here in verse fourteen. And he had a holy digression. So once in a while when your preachers get on a holy digression,

53:10 don't get upset with them. They've got good precedent. All right? You say, yeah, but you're not inspired. Touche. All right. Okay. But now verse fourteen. For this cause I bow my

53:22 knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, that is you Ephesians, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man. Here is Paul, nowhere near the geographical proximity of the Ephesians, and he's telling them that when he prays for them, praying to the Father who is the great paradigm of every family structure in heaven and earth, he is asking God to get them. They're already believers. In chapter one he says,

54:05 they have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. He will say further in chapter four in verse thirty, grieve not the Holy Spirit by which you're sealed in the day of redemption. They are regenerate, united to Christ, indwelt by the Spirit. But now he's praying that God would grant them to be strengthened with power through his Spirit. He is praying for fresh,

54:31 for increased, for greater measures of the Spirit's mighty working in them and upon them. And Paul fully understands there is an intimate connection between his prayer and God's giving of the Spirit to these Ephesian believers. Now he has no silly notion that he's got God in a hammerlock. He's got no silly notion that God's dependent upon his prayers to carry forth his work in the Ephesians, but this much is clear.

55:04 He's praying. He would grant them to be strengthened with might by the Spirit. He understands this intimate connection between prayer and the giving of the Spirit. And then in one of the most wonderful statements of this reality, Philippians chapter one. And I don't have time to go into

55:27 all of the strands that flow into the text, and I'm fully conscious of that. The context is Paul in prison at Rome. And if they had private corporate jets in that day, and Paul could take one from Rome to Philippi, it'd be a 600-mile trip. They're a long way away. And yet, notice what he says as he shares with his beloved Philippian

55:52 church what God is doing in him, some of the darker shadows of what's going on, people preaching Christ out of envy and strife, thinking to show up the apostle, and yet he's rejoicing. He says all of these things, something is working and conspiring, and all of them. Verse 19, For I know that this, all of these circumstances, even the adverse one, shall turn out to my salvation, that is, to the furtherance of the work of God's grace in me. How? Now notice, through, by means of your supplication and the supply

56:34 of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Could the connection be more explicit? Your prayer, supply of the Spirit. Your supplications, God's activity in increasing

56:59 measures of the Spirit's presence and power in my life, in my particular circumstances.

Pastoral Application: Thanksgiving, Perseverance, and Expectation

57:08 Paul understood, and he wanted the to understand, and he wants us to understand, there is indeed an intimate connection between the prayers of the people of God and the supply of the Spirit of God. Now, in summary and conclusion, what do we say? Well, I have stated that the third tap root, supporting and nourishing all God-honoring, Spirit-empowered evangelistic endeavors, is the necessity of earnest, persevering prayer for the presence and supernatural power of

57:52 the Holy Spirit. In attempting to prove the validity of that assertion, I have set before you two categories of biblical testimony. Number one, the necessity of the presence and power of the Spirit. Is rooted in the condition of sinners, and in the condition of those of us who seek to bring the gospel to them. And then secondly, it is because of the intimate relationship

58:18 between earnest prayer and the giving of the Spirit, I have laid before you four lines of evidence. Now, what do I say by way of pastoral application?

58:30 Well, first of all, I believe as a people, we have solid ground for thanksgiving, encouragement, and expectation. I believe as a pastor, seeking to be sensitive to what is going on in our midst, that we have solid grounds for thanksgiving, encouragement, and expectation. When the vision for this present endeavor for which we are preparing was set before you, my final point was this. What steps do we take to pursue this vision? And step number one was to begin

59:07 in the concentrated prayer of the Holy Spirit. And the second step was to begin in the concentrated prayer of the Holy Spirit. And the third step was to begin in the concentrated prayer of the Holy Spirit. And the fourth step was to begin in the concentrated prayer of the Holy Spirit. And God has given us a massive way to pray, particularly in our public prayer

59:11 meetings. And God has given a spirit of prayer. One of the few things you can't ape in religious life. There is nothing deader than a dead prayer meeting. You can spruce up any

59:24 other kind of meeting with something else, and at least go away with a little drip and drab and some crumbs. But nothing deader than a dead prayer meeting. But in these days, the Spirit of God has enlarged our hearts. Nobody has been giving pep talk, to try to stir us up, we have simply laid out the concern.

59:45 We have then said, now let's pray, and God has begun to give us a spirit of prayer. And dear people, that being so, we ought to be thankful, encouraged, and have a growing sense of expectancy that God is not drawing us out to pray to mock us. And I trust you, with me, are thankful, encouraged, and increasingly expected. Secondly, we have reason to heed the call not to grow weary in well-doing.

60:20 You remember in Luke 18.1, Jesus said men ought always to pray and what? Not to faint. He knew that in persevering prayer, fainting fits can overtake us very quickly.

60:36 These weeks. And several months of this endeavor are going to test whether or not we are 40-yard dash people, or whether we've got something of the spirit of a marathoner in us.

60:50 I'm being tested, sitting at my desk, hour after hour, seeking to compose these six lessons. I've blessed God for fresh challenges.

61:04 It caused me to cry to God with renewed earnestness and persevering prayer. Oh, God, help me! God, help me!

61:17 And together, we need, by God's grace, to heed the biblical exhortation, men ought always to pray and not to faint. Ephesians 6.18, with all prayer and perseverance thereunto. Paul knows we flagged so quickly in our perseverance.

61:38 In my next message, God willing, we'll look at the trunk, that is the very end. The essence of God-honoring, Spirit-empowered, evangelistic endeavors, that trunk can only be nourished by a healthy taproot system. May God grant that those taproots will be deeply embedded in this endeavor, will be nourished by the soil of the Word of God, and that we will see things in days to come that, as I prayed this morning, will make us...

62:15 I was very much at home with Psalm 126. When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion, we were like unto them to dream. Wouldn't it be wonderful if God did things that make us pinch ourselves, and we say, am I alive, or sleeping, or dreaming?

62:34 Can we not cry to God for that? For His glory, for His praise, that we might see the Lord reach out His arm and draw many unto Himself. Amen. Amen.

62:45 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:46 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:46 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:46 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:47 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:47 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:48 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:49 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:49 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:50 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:50 Amen. Drawing people to himself by making them jealous. Remember he said, I'm going to make my people Israel jealous when I show mercy to those goyim, to those outcast Gentiles. Could it be if God is pleased to use these Bible studies to reach some raw pagans, and you see God's grace being showered upon people who have none of the privileges that some of you have had, it'll get you jealous.

63:15 and you'll want to get saved. That's biblical. Who knows what God may do. Dear people, let's pray.

63:24 Let's cry to God. Let's persevere and ask Him to pour out of His Holy Spirit in fresh and copious measures upon all of us to the end that we may see His blessing upon this endeavor.

63:42 Our Father, we do earnestly pray that You will teach us to pray. Give us the kind of spiritual metal that will enable us to stick at it, not to flag in our zeal, not to grow weary in well-doing, knowing we shall reap in due season if we faint not. Lord, we ask You, O God, continue to go before us. Bless every effort being made in these days.

64:13 We have no silly notion that because we are in a flurry of activity, things will automatically happen. We know we need Your presence, Your power granted to us in new measures in days to come that we may yet gather and pour out our praise and thanksgiving for all that You have done to gather in many of those other sheep whom Jesus said He must bring and for whom there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Seal Your Word then to our hearts, we pray. Amen.

64:50 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

64:50 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

64:50 Amen. Amen. Amen. In Jesus' name.