Introduction
A vicar
was moving on and he was saying goodbye to his congregation at the door for the
last time. So he is shaking everyone’s hand and saying nice things – like
vicars do, you know. And he shakes the hand of an elderly lady as she walks
out. She says to him “The next vicar we get won’t be as good as you.” “Oh, nonsense,
don’t say that”, says the vicar. But in fact, he feels really flattered. What a
compliment, he thinks. It massages his ego a bit to be perfectly honest. Then
the old lady says, “No, I mean it. The next vicar we get won’t be as good as
you. I’ve seen five different vicars in this church, and every new one has been
worse than the last.”
If
it’s true that vicars get worse every year then the very best church leaders
would be the very first ones and our reading from Acts 16 is about four of the
very first; Paul, Timothy, Silas and Luke, who arrive one day in a city called Philippi.
That is actually a big deal. It was in fact the very first time anyone in
Europe heard about Jesus.
So
this was breaking new ground that would massively impact our continent for
centuries afterwards. Still today, people want to follow him, live under his influence
– and that is what these baptisms were about today. You said, “I turn to
Christ, the way the truth and the life” because there’s something about Jesus
that you think is good for your families. And you’re absolutely right about
that.
Prayer Makes Things Happen
So
here they were in this strange city. What’s the first thing you do when you go
to a new place? Find somewhere to eat? See the sights? Check out the night
life? The first thing these four guys do (v16) is head for the place of prayer.
I find that intriguing because praying is, for some people, the last thing they ever do, if at all. But
these guys seek out a place of prayer.
I
wonder where you think the place of prayer is. Some people think the only proper
place to pray is a church building. There’s something about the quietness and
stillness of an old church that helps some people to focus on God. I met someone
this week who told me exactly that.
Other
people pray best, not in a church, but when they’re out in the open air; by a
river or lake, or in a wood, or some wide-open space. I’m sort of like that
actually. I usually feel closest to God when I’m surrounded by amazing natural
scenery.
In
fact, there is no best place to pray. You can pray anywhere; in the garden, at
work, in the bath, while you’re shopping, first thing in the morning or last thing
at night by your bed, while you do the ironing or in the car when you’re
driving (but keep your eyes open if you do)… wherever.
I
was watching a match on TV last weekend and, at a moment when the game was
finely balanced, the camera panned round on both sets of fans and some of them had
their hands clasped together and their eyes closed like they were praying – of
course, it didn’t do half of them any good at all – but the point is that you
can pray anywhere.
So
what difference does prayer make? Can praying about a specific situation
actually affect the outcome? We don’t know what Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke
pray for but we do know what happens to them shortly afterwards.
Firstly,
they get harassed by a woman who must have come across as a bit of a nutter. She’d
been playing about with the occult and that messed her up so badly that she
spent days, we’re told, following these men around and shouting. That’s really annoying.
Then,
two of the four, Paul and Silas, get dragged into a public square, falsely
accused of a crime, physically attacked by a vigilante mob, stripped down to
their underwear, beaten with sticks and thrown into a secure cell with their
feet in stocks.
So
if they were praying for a nice quiet weekend, it didn’t work out too well.
What
did Paul and Silas say to each other in that police cell? Silas to Paul: “Those
cut-price holidays to Greece, you get what you pay for eh?” Paul to Silas: “Getting
beaten up in the market place – no one mentioned that on Trip Advisor!”
If
you pressed the “pause” button right there, you’d be tempted to say that prayer
is pretty useless. What’s the point of praying if that’s what you get out of
it?
So
much for Paul and Silas. What about the jailer? In v27 he wakes up (so that
proves he was asleep on the job – capital offence), he finds every cell empty
(so that shows all the prisoners had escaped on his watch – capital offence) so
he’s just about to fall on his sword. If you press “pause” right there, you’d probably
say that he’s having a bad day at work.
But
the story doesn’t end there. Because Paul and Silas and Luke and Timothy have
been in the place of prayer. And prayer changes things.
In
v25, in the middle of the night, at the darkest hour, at the lowest ebb, Paul
and Silas sing praise to God. With neither data projector nor worship band. It
was a spontaneous eruption of heartfelt worship.
The
Bible says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you.”
(1 Thessalonians 5.18).
In
all circumstances! Give thanks even
when your employment contract expires. Give thanks even when your bank account
is empty. Give thanks even when a project fails, when a colleague lets you
down, when your heart is troubled… give thanks. When you do, a drawback and a setback
can become a comeback.
Prayer changes things. Paul and Silas, falsely accused of committing
an offence, beaten up and locked away find themselves miraculously freed.
A
despairing prison officer on the verge of suicide in becomes a converted father
of a Christian family. He goes from trembling with fear, totally in anguish, to
being the overjoyed father of a harmonious home. That’s what Jesus does. And
that’s what prayer achieves.
I’ve
never prayed for a jail break. But the nearest I’ve ever got to it was when I
was in France. The church I was part of was in the centre of Paris, about 300
metres from the Elysee Palace, where the French President lives. It’s a high
security sort of place at all times but one Saturday, when I was down to take a
wedding, it was higher security than ever.
It
just so happened that George W. Bush was in town that day and there was a ring
of steel all around that part of town. Dozens of streets were closed. Vehicles
were barred from access. Even pedestrians were not allowed anywhere near my
church. Helicopters were flying overhead. Men with bulletproof vests and guns
were everywhere. I called the bride, who was a good friend, about an hour
before the service and explained. She said, “My wedding is going ahead. Sort it
out.”
I
said, “Right.” I spoke with the guys at the barriers and explained. I was told “No
chance.” I asked to speak to someone higher up. He came over and said “No chance.”
I got put onto the phone with some big cheese. He said “No chance.”
There
was only one thing to do. Get on my knees and ask God to take care of it. Ten
minutes later, some official looking man in a uniform came by and said word had
come from the highest authority that the wedding could go ahead and that access
would be granted to the bride, groom and congregation. Anyone dressed for a wedding
would be allowed through the barriers. And here's the happy couple afterwards.
Think of a delicate situation in your life.
Why don’t you try praying for seven days and see what happens?
People sometimes say to me “Well, I would but
God seems so far away.”
Our Need of Salvation
There’s a reason for that. He is. Between people and God there is a great chasm. That
chasm is there because of people prefer their ways to God’s ways. The Bible has
a word to for this and the word is “sin.”
The problem is that whenever we want to get
to God we can’t just jump over to the other side. The gap is too big.
So people try to build bridges. They try to be
as good as they can be, giving up chocolate, donating money to charity, visiting
an elderly neighbour or lighting a candle in a church.
There’s nothing wrong with those things; in
fact, they are really good. But they aren’t can’t get anyone to God. All the
effort in the world is not enough to build a bridge that gets us to the other
side of the chasm that exists between us and God.
But God saw our problem and he did
something about it.
Because he loves us so much, he provided a
way of getting close to him. His solution was to send his Son, Jesus, to be the
bridge.
Whoever makes the decision to cross the
bridge will be put right with God forever.
When anyone makes a decision to leave behind
their old life and turn in faith to Jesus things begin to change.
This
is how the jailer’s life was turned around. When he asks “What must I do to be
saved?” Paul doesn’t tell him to get in touch with his inner spiritual self. Nor
does he say, “You need to spend hours of pious praying and do a thousand good
works.” He says “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and
your household.”
That’s
all. That’s it. If anyone says “Lord, I’m sorry about the old me, please give
me a new heart,” he will and it’s
party time every time it happens.
About
a year after Kathie and I got married, we had a young student to stay with us
for a few months. She was the first person I ever had a hand in leading to
faith in Christ. The day she told us near the end of her stay “I’ve given my
life to Christ and I’m so, so happy!” we just overflowed with joy.
Several
of our young people made that step last summer. Our day release prisoner who
does community service here also made that step a year ago. He and three of our
teenagers are being baptized next Sunday.
Jesus puts it this way: ‘Whoever hears my
word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned;
he has crossed over from death to life’ (John 5:24).
God loves you. If you had been the only
person on earth - ever - who needed to get across the great divide, Jesus would
still have died on the cross for you.
What if you are trying to bridge the chasm on
your own, without Jesus? You are wasting your time.
Ending
As I
end, I want to invite you, maybe challenge you, to try praying for seven days about
a situation in your life. Whatever is bothering you. Through prayer, God can
change the life of a prison officer just about to end it all so that instead his
whole family gets baptized. He can open locked doors and set the prisoners
free. He can break through the security barriers for the most powerful man on
earth.
What
might God do in your life if you prayed about a situation for seven days?
We
have some booklets to offer called Try
Praying. They are a guide to help you pray if you don’t know where to
start. There are youth versions too for teenagers. Dozens of churches in
Stockton are giving these away this month to anyone who wants one and there
will be copies available at the door as you leave if you do. We think God is
about to do some amazing things in people’s lives as they go to the place of
prayer.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 26th April 2015
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