Waiting for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:12-26) // On mission with the risen Jesus

Acts chapter 1, verses 12 to 26. Then the apostles returned to

Acts 1:12–26

Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath

day's walk from the city. When they arrived, they went

upstairs to the room where they were staying.

Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and

Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew James son of Alphaeus and Simon

the Zealot and Judas son of James.

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with

the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

In those days, Peter stood up among the believers, a group

numbering about 120, and said, Brothers and sisters, the

Scripture had to be fulfilled, in which the Holy Spirit spoke

long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as

guide for those who arrested Jesus.

He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.

With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a

field. There he fell headlong, his body

burst open, and all his intestines spilled out.

Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that

field in their language Akeldama, which is field of

blood. Four, said Peter.

It is written in the book of Psalms.

May his place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in it,

and may another take his place of leadership.

Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who've

been with us the whole time. The Lord Jesus was living among

us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus

was taken up from us. For one of these must become a

witness with us of his resurrection.

So they nominated 2 men, Joseph called Boss Abbas, also known as

Justice, and Matthias. Then they prayed, Lord, you know

everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you

have chosen to take over this Apostolic ministry which Judas

left to go where he belongs. Then they cast lots and the lot

fell to Matthias. So he was added to the 11

apostles. Just to ask a question to get us

into this passage of how good are you at waiting for something

good? Maybe delaying bad things You're

very good at procrastination, people call it, But waiting for

something good? How good are you to waiting for

your birthday or for a holiday or a payday or a wedding or

whatever? For most of us, waiting for

something good is actually quite difficult.

We live in what's often called the instant gratification

culture. We want it and we want it now.

And when I was a kid, I would read the back of cereal boxes,

like things you could save up tokens and get a toy and allow

28 days for delivery. I mean, people below the age of

30, that's that crushes you. Like 2 to 3 working days is a

bit of an insult. Now.

Two to three working days, it's terrible stereotype of children

in the back, in the back of a car and a long journey.

Are we there yet? What they don't know is their

mother and father is secretly asking the same question and

anguish as the miles and hours go by.

Are we there yet? We are impatient people.

We live in a culture of impatient people.

But sometimes God tells us we have to wait for something good.

And wait was the command the risen Jesus gave his disciples

in our passage last week. Act One, verses 4 to 5, on one

occasion Jesus was eating with them.

He gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait

for the gift my father promised, which you've heard me speak

about for John baptized with water.

But in a few days you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So in the past, we're looking at this morning Acts one, the

second-half, the disciples are waiting for the Holy Spirit to

come. And Jesus has been clear with

the disciples, the coming of the Holy Spirit is very, very good

news for them. The Holy Spirit, he's his

coming's been promised throughout the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus for his life and mission.

And now that same Spirit is going to come and empower the

disciples for their life and mission.

The Holy Spirit, he's, he's the power they need to live as Jesus

witnesses. But even more than that, the

Holy Spirit is a person. He's God himself come to live

with and in his people. The coming of the Holy Spirit is

really good news for God's people.

And next we we're going to see when he actually does finally

come on the day of Pentecost. But in the meantime, in this bit

of acts were in, the disciples have been commanded to wait.

And that this is sort of a strange, unique moment in church

history. So the reason Jesus has left his

disciples, he descended into heaven, and yet the Holy Spirit,

the one Jesus calls the comforter, has not yet arrived.

So unlike every follower of Jesus sitting in this room

today, the disciples read about here, They don't yet have God

the Holy Spirit living with them and in them.

Amazingly, when we read this, we're not in the position of

waiting for the Spirit to come. The Spirit has come.

He came at Pentecost, and he is now with every single believer

in Jesus in US and with us day by day.

So Luke is recording a unique moment in church history, an

experience in which we do not share if we follow Jesus.

And yet this section of Acts is still God's word to us.

So what's God saying to us through His word, by his Spirit,

through this unique moment in history?

Well, the early disciples are waiting for the Holy Spirit,

something we don't have to do. But what they do while they're

waiting is what Luke has to encourage us in because we had

the passage read out to us. Hope we spotted something.

Prayer is at the very heart of this passage.

It begins and ends with the disciples praying.

Look down at verse 14. Luke tells us they all join

together constantly in prayer. And then verse 24, then they

prayed together before selecting Matthias.

What Luke wants us to see in this passage is that a church on

mission with the risen Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit is

a church that prays. It's a church that prays.

A church on mission with Jesus is a prayerful church.

It's a church that knows we need God's help.

We need God to do what only God can do, which is save people and

transform lives through the power of the gospel.

It's a church that knows we cannot live as witnesses for

Jesus in our own strength. We can't do it.

We need God the Holy Spirit living in US, helping us.

We need to ask God to help us. And that's what the early

disciples get here. They pray together constantly,

says Luke. They pray as they prepare to be

sent out on mission by Jesus. So let's look at this passage

together now again, at the end of our passage last week, there

isn't. Jesus ascends to heaven. 2

angels appear and say he's going to come back.

But in the meantime, the disciples need to get ready for

the mission Jesus has given them.

So verse 12, if you look down, the apostles leave the area

around the Mount of Olives and walk back to Jerusalem together.

And Luke says, what's the first thing they do when they get to

Jerusalem? They pray together constantly.

Verse 14, They all join together constantly in prayer.

They are waiting patiently for God's Spirit to come and they

spend that time with God together.

Now, who are the they that is mentioned in verse 14?

Well, Luke tells us he gives us sort of a snapshot of this group

of believers at this unique moment in history.

We've got the 11 apostles, verse 13, the 11 men Jesus chose to be

with him just three years previously.

He starts with the two sets of brothers, Peter, James, John and

Andrew, and then Luke lists all of them here.

Interestingly, none of the other names apart from Peter, James

and John are mentioned again in the book of Acts, but still

they're here. In this moment Jesus, apostles

and of course the mathematicians among us realise actually why

are there just 11? We're going to be thinking about

that as Peter addresses the believers.

Second group the Luke mentions is the women, and that we think

is probably Luke referring to the women he's already mentioned

by name in his gospel. Women like Mary Magdalene,

Joanna, Susanna, these Roman mentioned back in Luke chapter

Luke 8 · chapter mention

8. Women who helped support Jesus

and the apostles out of their own means.

These are women who were committed to Jesus, loyal

followers of Jesus. When all the male disciples ran

away, with the exception of John, these women were there at

the crucifixion. These were some of the women who

were the first witnesses of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.

Luke values women highly throughout his gospel and act

because he knows Jesus values women highly and the women are

there at the heart of this community praying with the

others. But he does actually name one

woman in this list and it's just a beautiful little moment.

Actually, he mentions that one of the women with them is Mary,

the mother of Jesus. And again, if you look back to

Luke's gospel, Mary plays an important role in that gospel.

In Luke's gospel, we see the story of the first Christmas

largely through the eyes of Mary.

It seems likely that Luke knew Mary personally and had spoken

with her to find out what happened that first Christmas

when he was talking to all the eyewitnesses.

It's amazing to think that the young girl chosen by God to be

the mother of Jesus is still here 33 years later with the

early church praying and waiting for the Spirit to come.

The mother of Jesus is also a follower of Jesus, and again,

you sort of your mind races a bit.

So if Mary was a teenager when she gave birth to Jesus as his

probable, she's probably in something like her late 40s at

this point. She's probably living with John

the Apostle and his family. Remember that moment at the end

of John's gospel where Jesus hanging on the cross is caring

for his mother? He says to to John, behold your

mother. To Mary, behold your son.

So she's living with John the Apostle and his family.

But here she is encouraging and praying with the other

believers. She must be an amazing gift to

the early church. She had such unique insight into

Jesus character and faithfulness throughout his life and he or

she is praying alongside the other disciples.

This is the last time she's mentioned in the New Testament.

But what a gift Mary would have been to the early church.

And again, what a joy to Mary that alongside her we're told

that Jesus brothers we're praying, presumably including

James who went on to be a leader of the church in Jerusalem.

We're told in the gospels that during Jesus earthly ministry

his brothers didn't believe in him.

But that all changed when the risen Jesus appeared to James.

We read about that in one Corinthians 15.

And after that appearance, James and it seems others of Jesus,

half brothers, put their faith in Jesus and took their place in

the early church. This is a snapshot Luke is

giving us of this group of people at this particular moment

in time, and there are plenty of others that he doesn't name.

He says there's a group numbering about 120 believers,

followers of Jesus, who'd seen the risen Jesus and who together

were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. 120 people, not a bad

number before Pentecost in some ways.

That's roughly the the size of of our church, sometimes 120

people. And they're waiting for the

coming of the Spirit, and they're praying as they wait.

Verse 14 in the original Greek is really strong, emphatic

language, literally, they continued steadfastly with one

mind in prayer. What do you do when you're

waiting for the Holy Spirit? You hold fast to each other, you

pray together, you encourage each other.

This is a picture of people united in drawing near to God,

persevering across those number of days.

They were waiting, hungry and recognising their need for God.

Prayer is at the heart of this passage, and before we step back

to think what that might mean for us and our life together, we

need to think about what part prayer played again at this

unique moment in church history with this unique group of

people, Jesus apostles. What were the apostles doing as

they waited for the Holy Spirit? Well, Luke tells that the

apostles prepared themselves for mission by restoring their

number to 12 so they'll be ready for when the Spirit comes again.

You look at the opening chapters of Acts.

So much of the focus Luke has is on this particular group of

people, the 12 apostles, and their unique, definitive role as

witnesses for Jesus. These are the people who are

entrusted with preaching and preserving the gospel of the

risen Jesus. But again, back in 13, Luke just

listed 11 apostles. Someone is missing.

Judas Iscariot, one of the original 12, is no longer with

them. And in verse 15, Peter, the

leader of the 12, stands up to acknowledge this and to help the

believers process what has happened among them.

Let me read verses 15 to 17. In those days, Peter stood up

among the believers, a group numbering about 120, and said,

brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled,

in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David

concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested

Jesus. He was one of our number and

shared in our ministry. I want to suggest you can hear

something of the pain and even the disbelief in Peter's words

here. He was one of our number.

Judas shared in our ministry. Peter would have considered

Judas a friend, and yet he says Judas served as a guide for

those who arrested Jesus. And Luke tells us he was paid

for doing that. And what?

This would have been massively painful for the early church to

hear about and to process. And it's hard for us to get that

because our culture, the word the name Judas basically means

traitor, doesn't it? I mean, Judas, it's not a shock

to us. Oh, Judas.

He's the one betrayed. Yeah, because.

Because of his name, isn't it? But of course, the the name came

first before the betrayal. Then you hear people shout out

the name Judas as an insult. Whether it's a music concerts,

when a folk singer starts playing an electric guitar,

whether it's at political rallies when someone moves to a

different party, whether it's when a when a player argues to

transfer to another team before the end of the transfer window,

that name Judas gets shouted at people all the time as an

insult. We're not shocked by Judas's

betrayal. We need to see the early church

was for Peter and the other disciples right up to the events

of the first Good Friday. Judas was their friend.

He was one of their number. He was a leader in the church.

He had travelled with Jesus for about 3 years.

He was trusted by the disciples. He looked after the money, we're

told. Then suddenly at the end of that

time, Judas betrayed Jesus into the hands of his enemies for 30

pieces of silver. This was a shock and this was

painful, and Peter wants to strengthen and encourage the

believers by helping them process what has happened.

Fast forward to today, and the sad reality is that Christian

leaders still fall. Christian leaders can still

betray Jesus through their actions, and when that happens,

it is deeply painful for the people around them.

Even the last 10 years, I can think of a number of prominent

Christian leaders who've either been removed from their posts or

after their death, been exposed as living double lives.

People like the evangelist Ravi Zacharias or pastors Mark

Driscoll Removed from posts. Steve Timmons.

Removed from posts. Mike Pilavacci, Different

leaders, different stories, different circumstances.

And yet when they fall, it hurts the church.

And it caused people to ask huge questions.

You know, why? What went wrong?

How could this have happened? How did none of us see this

coming? When we look at somebody's phone

and go, well, they did everything they say, is it all

wrong? Was it all a lie?

Does that mean any one of us could fall in the same way?

I want us to see those are exactly the sort of questions

the early church would have been asking here in Acts 1.

And that is why Peter stands up to speak in verse 15, to

strengthen and encourage the believers to help them process

what has happened, to grieve over and to trust in God's good

and saving purposes even in the face of human sin.

So what does Peter say to the early believers?

Well, the first thing he does is is he faces up to what has

happened. Yes, he spells it out.

He says Judas's betrayal was evil and ugly.

He doesn't minimize what Judas did or play it.

Dying Judas was one of our number.

He shared in our ministry. Yet in the end, he betrayed

Jesus and it was ugly. Peter and the other New

Testament writers are clear Judas wasn't a puppet.

He wasn't forced to betray Jesus by God or by anyone else.

In fact, right up to the end, Judas was given opportunities to

repent of his actions. Just one example in John's

account of the Last Supper in John 13.

There's that more where Jesus offers Judas a piece of bread at

the meal. And in 1st century Jewish

culture, to pass a morsel of bread like that was a sign of

honour and friendship. It's like Jesus making one last

gesture of love towards Judas, one last plea with him to step

back from what he was going to do.

But it feels to change Judas mind.

Judas walks out into the night and betrays Jesus, and verses 18

and 19 look records for us the terrible consequences of Judas's

betrayal. He ends up dead in the field his

blood money bought, a field known from that moment on as the

field of blood. Judas is a picture, a warning

sign of God's judgement. Here, Luke wants his reader to

see God's judgement is real and it is frightening.

Judas of betrayal was evil and ugly, Peter says.

Secondly, Peter has to assure these believers Judas of

betrayal didn't catch God off guard or thwart his saving

purposes. Again, Fast forward back to

today. Whenever a Christian leader

falls, it easily cast doubt on the whole Christian Church.

At least people think, well, maybe is God really able to keep

his promises? Maybe we're all just really

fragile. Maybe we can all just fall apart

tomorrow. But Peter is emphatic here, the

risen Lord is not defeated by human sin and rebellion, even

from those in leadership, and He will not allow it to prevent Him

and his saving purposes in this world.

So verse 20 Peter quotes from 2 Old Testament Psalms of David,

Psalm 69, Psalm 109. And remember, Jesus has just

spent 40 days with the disciples explaining to them how the whole

Bible points to him. What's the Bible on about Whip

Boa? I think it's what Chris said.

It's about him and these psalms, says Peter, they're about Jesus

and what happened to Jesus. And Peter says as tragic as it

is, the betrayal of Judas was the tragic fulfilment of

Scripture. Judas betrayal of Jesus didn't

catch God off guard. Jesus warned Judas repeatedly

against betraying him. He offered Judas that chance to

repent. But when Judas refused to

listen, his act of betrayal became part of our story of

salvation. Peter and Luke want us to know

Jesus saving purposes cannot be stopped.

They cannot be thwarted even by the ugliest of human sins and

betrayals. And in a fallen world where

Christian leaders still fall and where sin and selfishness still

permeate the church, that is good news to hold onto.

God is bigger than our sin. He is able to work out his

purposes. And the final thing Peter wants

the early believers to see in this situation is that Jesus

wasn't finished with the 12. Amazingly, Peter says Jesus,

he's not given up on us, even in light of our weaknesses.

And I love the fact that this is Peter saying this to the early

church. And Judas wasn't the only person

who betrayed Jesus in some way that night of the crucifixion.

Before the crucifixion, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times

to save his skin. He ran away weeping bitterly

that night. But then after Jesus rose from

the dead, Jesus forgave Peter and restored Peter.

And Peter knows from painful but glorious experience, Jesus

doesn't give up on people even in their sin if they come back

to him. Jesus had called on the apostles

to be his witnesses in the world and he was still committed to

those apostles in spite of their weakness and their foolishness.

So Peter says we need to replace Judas.

Why? We might think, well that's that

we need to remember that why Jesus chose 12 apostles in the

1st place. That number 12 is deeply

significant. The 12 apostles were meant to be

the leaders of a new restored Israel, just as in the Old

Testament it was 12 tribes of Israel.

Jesus deliberately chose 12 apostles to be the leaders of

his church, the new people of God, the church made-up of men

and women from ancient Israel like these first apostles, but

also men and women from every tribe and language and people

and nation. The 12 apostles are equivalent

to those 12 tribes of Israel. This is the new people of God.

These will be the leaders of that people.

And Peter says we need to replace Judas to be ready for

the coming of the Spirit. So Peter lists the

qualifications of an apostle in verses 21 to 22.

And they're, it's a pretty high bar.

He said they need to be with us the whole time, the Lord Jesus

living among us from John's baptism of Jesus up to the

ascension of Jesus. For one of these must become a

witness with us of his resurrection.

It's a high bar because these apostles are going to be the

guardians, the preachers, the preservers of the gospel of the

risen Jesus until the New Testament is written, until we

have that recorded for us. It's their gospel that's

preserved in the New Testament, and it's their gospel of the

risen Jesus that has the power to say of everyone who believes.

That's why these qualifications are so high and just in passing.

That's why in this sense, there are no apostles in this sense

around today. Now some church traditions do

have people named apostles in them, and using that title, they

usually understand an apostle to be a leader of leaders in the

church, someone senior to maybe elders and pastors, whose job is

to help and encourage elders and pastors.

And that is a great job for anyone to have.

But it isn't the same as a 1st century apostle because the

original apostles, Acts insists, were witnesses of the life and

resurrection of Jesus. They were the writers of the New

Testament and those entrusted with proclaiming and preserving

the gospel for us. So why does this matter?

Is this just a little bit of church history that some geeks

might enjoy but means nothing to the rest of us?

Well, actually, no. Put simply, we can thank God for

the apostles and the way they preserved and proclaimed the

gospel for us, and we can stay faithful to the gospel the

apostles preached. There's always temptations to

kind of change the gospel, tweak it, make it a little more

palatable. But the apostles lived and died

to preserve this gospel for us, because Jesus wants us to know

the certainty of who he is and all that he has done for us.

I love the way the apostle Peter describes the Apostolic Gospel

for us in two Peter 116 and 19. He writes for.

We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you

about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we

were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

We have this message as something completely reliable,

and you'll do well to pay attention to it as to a light

shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning

star rises in your hearts. I don't know about you.

There's not many things you can say are completely reliable in

this world. But the Apostolic Gospels, one

of them. And again this week, the events

of the last few days in our culture in the West, you just

see we live in a dark place with confusion and uncertainty and

division and anger and hatreds. We need this light shining in a

dark place. We need the gospel preached and

preserved by the apostles about the risen Jesus.

We need to dig deeply into it to stay faithful to and let it fuel

our worship of Jesus and our witness to Jesus as a church.

So just to wrap up what happens next, this process of restoring

the 12 apostles, only two men satisfy the criteria.

Peter sets out verse 23. There's Joseph called Barcebus

and also known as Justice and Matthias just in passing.

It's quite sad. This guy Joseph called Barcebus,

known as Justice, he gets three names, doesn't get chosen.

I'm always sad about that. This guy, he's just like, we

know it's you and that's a different Joseph.

No, it's not. You were called Barcebus and

Justice. Anyway, the believers then unite

together in prayer. Again, that theme of prayer,

asking God to show them which of the two men he had chosen.

Look down verse 24. Lord, you know everyone's heart.

Show us which of these two you have chosen.

And you see, this isn't a democratic election.

It's not let's choose the more popular candidate.

It's not even a church member's vote like there's going to be

tonight at the September family meeting at six O clock till

7:30. If you're a church member.

Because after praying verse 26, the believers cast lots, a bit

like throwing dice and the lot fell to Matthias.

Now in the Old Testament, casting lots, a traditional way

of determining God's will. Proverbs 1633, the lot is cast

into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord's.

So we may ask, well, why are we bothering with a church vote for

a part time minister? Just throw some dice and find

out what happens. Well, we're not doing that

because for a number of reasons. One of them is actually this is

feels like a very much a one off in biblical history.

We need to remember this decision was made before

Pentecost, before the coming of the Holy Spirit, before we had

the whole New Testament with us. And today all believers have the

Holy Spirit and we're able to pray in the light of scripture

to ask God to show us his will. There are no further examples of

casting lots in the New Testament.

This seems to be a one off moment.

So for whatever reason they do this.

And Matthias is chosen 3 name, Joseph is not.

And we end this passage with the 12 apostles complete again, the

early church continuing and prayer together as they wait for

the Holy Spirit to come. And we'll see that event next

week. OK, I hope we've seen there's

lots of just unique moments in this.

This is not the world we live in in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And yet, what does this passage have to say to us today as we

read it? I think it just has to say

prayer must be at the heart of every local church that is on

mission with Jesus. The picture we get here of the

early church is of a group who joined together constantly in

prayer. Why?

Because they know how much they need God, They know the mammoth

nature of the task in front of them, and they know they cannot

do it on their own. A church on mission with the

risen Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit is a church that

prays. So as we finish, how does this

passage encourage us to pray individually, but even more so

corporately together as a church family?

I think look at some beautiful pictures of prayer here.

What is prayer? Prayer is responding to God in

his words. I don't know how often you maybe

think I might pray and just the words don't come.

You just, your mind is blank, you can't think about it and

say, well, actually look at what the apostles do.

They pray in response to the word of God.

They look at these psalms and they pray in response to you

see, we speak to God in prayer because God first speaks to us

in his word. We speak to God in prayer

because God invites us to speak to him.

Prayer is always initiated by God.

He's the one who makes the first move.

We are responding to him. Again, the apostles, the early

church here, they're praying in response to the promises of

Jesus. And notice the fact that Jesus

promised something isn't an excuse not to pray.

We might say, well, well, Jesus said the Holy Spirit's coming.

Just chill out for a bit. Relax until he comes.

You, he's going to come. Jesus said he would.

But no, the early church says, we are praying to be ready for

that. We know that the Holy Spirit's

coming. Jesus told us we want to be

ready. Actually the promises of God

aren't somebody got we don't need to pray for actually an

encouragement to keep praying. God has promised this.

Let's keep praying for it. Unlike the apostles, A great

fuel for prayer is the psalms. Tonight at the following

meeting, we're going to start our our time just looking at a

Psalm together and thinking what does it tell us about who God

is, who we are, why we pray. Reading a Psalm helps us see

this is what prayer is like. I could be completely honest

with God. God is big.

He is strong. He is able to hear my requests,

my griefs, my questions, my joy. The Psalms run the whole gamut

of human emotion, and the Psalms give it an insight into the

intimate life of prayer that Jesus has with the Father that

we now can have with the Father. Prayer is responding to God in

His Word. That's a gift of my sabbatical

early on, an early, an older leader told me, just read a

couple of Psalms every day before you pray and just let

that fuel you. I can say it's been

transformative. Prayer is responding to God in

his Word and prayer is partnership with God.

Amazingly, in prayer, God invites his people to play a

part in his sovereign saving purposes in this world.

Again, we could just say, well, well God's going to do what He's

going to do, but no, God wants us to play our part in that.

In one sense, God doesn't need our prayers at all, but he wants

them because he doesn't need us at all.

But he wants us. He loves us.

He delights to partner with us. We are God's Co workers in his

mission and a huge part of that is when we pray to him.

Why would he want to miss out on that partnership?

And finally, I think Luke shows us prayer is intimacy with God.

And this is unique moment in history.

The disciples, Jesus has left them.

The Spirit has not yet come. You might think this is just be

one of the loneliest seasons they will ever feel.

What do they do? They they come together and they

pray and they remember who God is, who they are, that they are

loved by a heavenly Father who has sent his Son to live, die

and rise again. And for that group of people,

the Holy Spirit is coming and they encourage each other in

that. For Christians today, we say the

Holy Spirit has come and we encourage each other in that.

God is now our Father. We cry ABBA Father, because the

Spirit has come. Jesus is our brother, our high

priest. We're united with Jesus because

the Holy Spirit has come. And the Holy Spirit helps us

when we don't know what to pray for.

He groans with us, helping us in our prayers.

This passage, with all its unique details, is at bottom

just a call for God's people to pray.

The book of Acts is, if you like, a school of prayer.

Every moment in this, every big turning point, you see God's

people praying. And that is an invitation and

encouragement, a spur to us. Will we pray together in the

months and weeks to come? Will we learn to join together

constantly in prayer? We do that in family meetings

like tonight, in home groups on Sunday mornings.

But maybe we need to think together.

Are there other ways we can encourage each other?

Whether we we use Sunday evenings more for for prayer,

online prayer meetings, praying in each other's homes, they'll

be setting apart a week of prayer in the near future, as we

have done in the past. The book of Acts says we cannot

live as witnesses for Jesus without God's help, without the

Spirit leading us, without a clear vision of Jesus.

And for that to come, we need to be a church that prays.

We're different to these apostles, this early church,

gloriously, the Holy Spirit has come, but we can learn from

them. They join together constantly in

prayer. May that be more and more a

description of our life together as a church family at Ave.

Let me pray for us as we finish. Father God, we thank you that

you're not far off from us, that we are not cut off from you,

that Lord, you've come near to us in the person of your son,

You've come near to us in the person of your spirit.

And Lord, you want to partner with us.

Astonishingly, you want to call us your Co workers for your

saving purposes in this world. Would you encourage us in that?

Would each one of us want to play our part in that?

Knowing that this is not just an obligation or a duty, but an

opportunity to know more of your love and care for each one of us

and for us corporately as a church, and an opportunity to

see you powerfully at work in and free us for your saving

purposes in this world. Thank you for those apostles who

prayed fervently 2000 years ago. Help us to see what you're

calling us to pray about and to join together in prayer about in

this coming season. In Jesus name we ask it Amen.