Last week William Thornton and J D Greear published articles about the low baptism statistics in the SBC. Between them they mentioned most of the pertinent factors. J D Greear led by lamenting the low level of spiritual fervency in our churches. For sure, he is not the only one to mention that. In the comments on William’s post, Bob Cleveland wrote this:
“When I read the account, in Acts, of the day of Pentecost, which resulted in 3,000 people being saved and baptized, I must ask what they had that we don’t have today. Because, whatever it is, it’s missing now.”
Bob’s comment inspired me to write this post. His question is one I’ve heard many times over the years. As a professor of missions, I’ve taught the Book of Acts many times. Every time I teach it, a student will ask, “Why don’t we see the events of Acts in our churches today?” That’s a great question, and I always give a twofold response. First, we don’t pray like the church in Jerusalem prayed; and, second, we are not filled with the Holy Spirit like the believers at Jerusalem were.
Why do I answer in that way? In regard to prayer, notice these verses in Acts:
“These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” (Acts 1:14, NKJV)
Earlier in the chapter Luke tells us that Jesus taught his disciples for forty days. Pentecost followed the Passover by fifty days, so the believers in Jerusalem prayed in the Upper Room for about ten days before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:42, NKJV)
This verse tells us the four basic activities of the new church in Jerusalem. Notice that they “continued steadfastly” in prayer. I don’t know about your church; but if our church sponsors a meal, lots of folks come. If we schedule a prayer meeting, only a few attend.
“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31, NKJV)
Notice again the emphasis on corporate (group) prayer. Praying together in groups was a distinctive characteristic of the Jerusalem church.
Now notice the references to the Spirit’s filling:
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4, NKJV)
We also see Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit (4:8), and 4:31, quoted above, speaks of the believers praying and being filled with the Spirit. In Acts 2 and again in 4:31, the filling of the Spirit caused the Christians to proclaim God’s word boldly.
I do not contend that the events of Acts would be exactly replicated if we prayed and were filled with the Holy Spirit as were the believers in Jerusalem. However, I do believe that if we prayed as they prayed and were filled as they were, we would witness boldly, just as they did.
My wife and I served for many years in the Philippines with the IMB. The Filipino Christians often said, “Walay pagampo, walay gahum.” This means “no prayer, no power.” That was true in the early church, and it is true today.
Amen, brother. God simply will not empower and use a church that will not pray. Conversely, I am convinced that a church who commits herself to fervent, persistent prayer will be used mightily by God. Thanks for the article.
Thanks, Randall. I tell my seminary students that any size church can implement a prayer ministry. It does not cost a penny.
My favorite verse out of that Acts narrative is 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
Praying in such a way that the place where you gather is shaken, not just those gathered, but the place. That’s powerful prayer. You see the same thing in Isaiah 6. And yet, I often hear the supernatural part of that explained away. The power gets zapped out of it, pardon the expression. Why shy away from something that could be a movement of the Holy Spirit? I’ve been in a church with a worship leader who had what I believe was the spiritual gift of discernment and could sense the Spirit moving among the members of a congregation. I was a bivocational staff member and heard church leaders say to him on more than one occasion, “tone it down,” or “dial it back a bit.” I’m not sure what they were afraid of, that people might break out in tongues? A congregation of 200 that had four baptisms in five years needed something to shake it. We don’t want to get too close to the fire.
Surely, our statistics show that lots of churches need to be shaken.
Lee, A very excellent book that talks about this very thing is Revival!: A People Saturated with God by Brian Edwards. It is hard to find but well worth the trouble it takes to procure a copy.
Good word, Mark.
I take it that Filipino quote is Visayan? “Walay” sounds like “wala/walang” (Tagalog).
Perhaps God is moving and answering prayer in mighty ways, but we reject it because it comes in a form we do not expect and refuse to accept.
Really enjoyed this post.
Prayer is an essential Christian activity but it is more than that. It reflects the heart of the believer toward God.
As to whether more prayer will bring about what happened in Acts, that’s a causal link we cannot claim in advance.
Regardless, if we love God, we should pray more. We will be communing with the object of our worship. This will affect us in many ways, and people will notice the changes.
That’s a good thing regardless of whether we see mass conversions or increases in our stats.
To Kevin: Yes, the Filipino words are Cebuano, the main language of the central and southern Philippines. My wife and I served on the island of Mindanao in the South. That is the language we studied. Walay is the equivalent of walang.
To Louis: I agree. We cannot manipulate almighty God with our prayers. The purpose of prayer is to align ourselves with God’s will. God reveals His will through the Scriptures. Ephesians 5:18 instructs us to be filled with the Spirit, and Matthew 28:19 commands us to make disciples.
My friend, Dr. John Polhill taught New Testament and Greek at Southern Baptist Seminary for 40 years. He wrote the commentary on Acts in Broadman’s New American Commentary. I asked him about the result of the Spirit’s filling in Acts. He replied, “The result of the Spirit’s filling was always bold proclamation of the gospel.”
Good word! I am familiar with professor Polhill and his strong reputation.
One thing I know for sure…. “you have not because you ask not.” He is not talking about things that we want for our own pleasure but for what is needed for Kingdom work. There are some things that the Lord would do but doesn’t because His people don’t ask.
I really believe it and have been saying it for years in our gatherings. We will see a church planting and evangelism movement when we first see a churches on fire, Holy Ghost empowered prayer movement
The key to that is “Holy Ghost empowered” not “doctrinal conformity empowered.”
One overlooked factor in the early evangelism of Jews and Proselytes is their spiritual status at that moment. Some portion of them were already people with an Old Testament faith and were the people of God at the time of the crucifixion and resurrection. These Old Testament saints who were living at that time are those who were given to Jesus by the Father of which he would not lose one (John 10:16). Those given by the Father to the Son will come to the Son (Jn 6:37). They are the ones who are the sheep of Jesus’ fold who will hear his voice and follow Him (Jn 10:27). Jesus taught that every Old Testament believer living after the resurrection would respond to His voice and become a follower of Him. Consequently, when these Saints heard the gospel proclaimed they heard His voice and became followers of Jesus in mass. Everywhere the the gospel was brought to the Jew and proselyte there was an affirmative response in the hearts of those who already possessed a real Old Testament faith to the call of the Shepherd. The initial wave of conversions was likely from Old Testament Saint becoming born again New Testament Saints. Among these there were also certainly those who came to faith in God for the first time. Once that wave passed the gospel continued to spread but single day conversions measuring in the thousands diminished. All that said, I wouldn’t dare diminish the importance of prayer in the work of the Kingdom. It is the only way that we receive the resources we need to do the work of the Kingdom on earth. If it was necessary in such a rich harvest opportunity as pentecost it is necessary today.
I don’t know Kimberly, but I believe with all my heart she is correct. I’ll give an example. My church was all prayed up at the start of a revival, the Holy Spirit was so present it was if you could stick out your hand and the Holy Spirit would shake it. The speaker killed the entire revival the first night. He stuck with his outline from start to finish. It was obvious there was nothing personal that originated from him. There was nothing genuine that came from him. He certainly didn’t indicate he was in love with Jesus. The sermon that was delivered that night was a professional sermon delivered by a professional preacher. I wanted to call off the revival the first night.
I personally blame the professional preachers for the condition of our churches today. Professional preachers don’t need the Holy Spirit, they have been taught all the answers by man. In order to preach with the power of the Holy Spirit one must have the Holy Spirit. There are only a few highly educated preachers that preach with the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit, and there are many that don’t. Today, many not so educated preachers are dry as gourds, but I will say many are full of the Holy Spirit.
If a child can get so excited by telling some kind of story, why can’t we preachers get excited about Jesus and be genuine about it? Friend don’t preach the letter without having the Spirit of the letter. The thing that is behind a dried up church is a dried up preacher, and we wonder why baptisms are down. Do with this what you will, take it or leave it.
A pastor’s education will only get in the way of the Holy Spirit if that’s what he’s depending on to guide his ministry. I believe a pastor who experiences a spiritual call to ministry will seek out an education as a means of developing maturity and skills but that’s not what he should lean on to lead the church. One of the spiritual gifts given is discernment, so that a pastor can sense a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit and lead the church to experience it. But we are set in our narrow interpretations of scripture and stifle the spirit with our literalism which produces churches the way we want them, not the way God wants them.
If you’ve ever been part of a church that knows how to wait on and listen to the Spirit then you’ve experienced the transformation that results. The worship leadership, including the pastor, must have the gift of discernment in order to lead the congregation to understand and experience His presence. And if you have a church that experiences the fullness of a spiritual experience you have Christians who are doing evangelism because you have a church that is living an abundant life that’s visible.
Well said, Lee. A seminary/Bible college education does not stifle the Holy Spirit. The Apostles had spent three years being trained by Jesus. When I was the dean at Clear Creek Baptist Bible College in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky, I had a student who was called to pastor a little mountain church. The members urged him to drop out of Bible college. They insisted that theological education would kill the Spirit in him. He came to me for advice. I replied, “Tell those folks you can chop more wood with a sharpened ax.” He told them that, and they stopped hounding him. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts for ministry (The Spirit makes the ax.). Seminary and Bible college just sharpens the gifts bestowed by the Spirit.
Mark Terry, I differ with you here. The Apostles were taught by Jesus, not trained by Jesus. To train is to do a job in a specific way and follow through. To be taught the word and allow the disciples to deliver it according to the talents they were given is a whole different story. Today we are trained to deliver the word in a particular way and told this is how the Holy Spirit operates. About everyone I know delivers their sermon in the same way. There are different faces but the same old way.
I’ve heard preachers say the Lord gave me a message for this morning as they was praying. Well that new message was the same old points I’ve heard 100 times before. Dr. J Vernon McGee once told a story about him traveling through Arkansas and stopping at a lamp factory where they make the lamps from the clay stored out back. How a muddy mess was turned into a fine work of art. I’ve heard two more preachers deliver that sermon about the lamp factory which they said they observed. All the same points once again. I have to say yes, education does hinder the Holy Spirit. I’m old school, I believe the Holy Spirit still speaks to us today, and if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us he will show us things we never dreamed of, and show us things we were never taught in school.
I doubt that I can convince you to change your mind. However, when Dr. Al Fasol taught us preaching at Southwestern Seminary he taught us never to preach without praying fervently before. He also taught us not to use the sermons of other preachers. I mainly teach missions; but when I’ve taught preaching, I’ve taught my students the same.