The Prayers of the Early Church: Reading Acts with David Gooding

The first miraculous sign the apostles performed in the name of the risen Lord Jesus led to the first recorded trial before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:5ff), and the first recorded corporate prayer of the first believers (Acts 4:23-31).

In Praying the Bible (Crossway, 2015), Donald Whitney exhorts his readers:

"when you pray, pray through a passage of Scripture, particularly a psalm."

 

David Gooding makes the following observations as the first believers prayed through Scripture after their first encounter with the Jewish authorities:

1)  "they appealed, over the head of the chief priests and Sanhedrin, directly to the authority of the Creator: ‘Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them’ (4:24)." (p.106)

2) "they appealed to holy Scripture, as being inspired by God, as the authority by which the high priest, the chief priests, the Sanhedrin, and all their actions and attitudes must be judged: ‘You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David’ (4:25)." (p.107)

3) "they made their judgment on the basis not of an odd phrase or two of Scripture wrested out of their contexts, but of a detailed comparison of the Bible with their situation. They quoted Psalm 2:1–2 at length ... and they proceeded to review in prayer before God the detailed way in which the concerted action of Herod and Pilate, of the Gentiles and the people of Israel, matched exactly the situation described in the psalm (4:25–28)." (p.107)

4) "in the light of this Scripture, they formulated what they felt the issue at stake was. The crucifixion of Jesus, though at one level decided beforehand by God’s power and will, had been a ‘raging against God’, a concerted attack on God’s holy and anointed servant Jesus (4:25, 27–28). This was not a matter on which they could possibly compromise. The honour of God and of his Messiah was at stake." (p.107)

5) "they asked for appropriate vindication, not for themselves, but for the name of the Lord Jesus. The vindication, they prayed, should be twofold: (1) that they might be given more than human grace, not to crumple under the Sanhedrin’s threats and fluff the issue, but to speak out boldly and without compromise; and (2) that God himself would intervene by doing not just miracles, but miracles through the name of his holy Servant Jesus (4:29–30) ... Mere supernatural works by themselves are ambiguous: the Man of Sin will, apparently, do many of them (2 Thess 2:9–10). What was required was that miracles be done through the name of the Lord Jesus so that his name would be vindicated, quite apart from any benefit received." (pp. 107-8)

6) "And their prayer was answered: ‘The place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly’ (4:31)." (emphasis added)

As they prayed through Scripture, they were enabled to interpret their experience, identify the issues at stake, and formulate and prioritise their response in the light of God's sovereign purposes. There is surely much for us to learn and apply to our own personal and corporate prayer life today.