When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.—Acts 2:1–4

Outline

Introduction
Prayer & Moments of Decision
Application
Conclusion/Communion

Introduction

This is the first Sunday of 2021. One of our historical rhythms that I have grown to love at Bethlehem is that we always start the year with an emphasis on prayer (first Sunday) and the word (second Sunday). The third and fourth Sundays correspond to MLK day (sermon on racial harmony) and the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (Sanctity of Life Sunday). Pastor Kenny Stokes will be preaching on Racial Harmony Sunday from Acts 2:5–12, while Pastor John Piper is going to preach for Sanctity of Life Sunday.

For the first two sermons of the year, we are going to be in Acts 2:1–4. There is no other text in which I would rather be right now. This week we are going to see what it teaches us about prayer, and the next week we will see how it directs us to our emphasis on the word. It will be a powerful dynamic duo.

Let me highlight something right away lest you be confused. The word prayer is not in this text. The theme of prayer is not in this text. I am going to make this point next week, but let me just address it briefly right now so you can see where this sermon is going.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

Please notice something with me. It does not say, “now when they had prayed enough, the day of Pentecost arrived.” Pentecost did not come on this day on the calendar because of any human initiative: it is not that they fasted enough, prayed enough, gave enough, or obeyed enough. No. What we will see next week is that literally the Greek text says that the day of Pentecost “was fulfilled” (symplēroō). It was a time on God’s calendar. God had not told them the day or the time. Jesus just told them to wait for it. “Tarry in Jerusalem until the Spirit comes.”

Do not think to yourself: I need to pray or things just will not happen. God is the sovereign Lord. He has his timetable. Do not forget about the providence of God when you pray to God. He has his time and his purposes and his calendar. We will see next week why God in his providence ordained that the Holy Spirit would come on the Day of Pentecost.

This week, I simply want to direct your attention to the fact that Pentecost did not come because of prayer. Pentecost came because of God’s providence and perfect plan. So what does all of this have to say about prayer then? Much in every way!

Look back over the end of chapter 1. You remember in the first 11 verses that Jesus was teaching them about the kingdom of God and commanding them to wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit of God came upon them. Then Jesus ascended into heaven in verse 9.

What did the disciples do between Acts 1:11 and Acts 2:1? The obvious answer is that they waited. But look at Acts 1:12–14 again.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

The verse that will be the focus of our sermon is actually verse 14. What do you do while you are waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled? You pray. The disciples do not just sit around and focus on other things while they wait for God to act. Prayer is active waiting upon the Lord. It is not a discipline to master; it is a relationship to nurture. It is part of communion with God. You do not wait for God while you ignore God and go on with the rest of your life.

Waiting is not resignation or passive inactivity. Waiting upon the Lord was part of communion with the Lord in prayer. And prayer was a community project—men and women all from different backgrounds—united by Jesus and their desperate need for God to act. They were waiting together. Notice the two ways that Luke portrays their community prayers: “with one accord” and “devoting themselves.”

1. With One Accord. These different people with all different pasts came together with “one accord” (homothymadon). This is one of Luke’s favorite words for the unity of these early believers. They were united in one mind and one passion. They had a common consent, mutual agreement, and a unified aim.
2. Devoting Themselves to Prayer. Their prayers are not just unified. They are persistently devoted to prayer. It is not once in a while or occasional. And it is not optional. They are devoted to it together. They share a common need and a common passion. They need God to act. And they long for him to act. It is a desperate need and a defining passion for the Christian community. 

Don’t take my word for it. Journey with the early church as they come to major moments of decision.

Prayer & Moments of Decision

1. When Scripture (Psalm 69:25, 109:8) showed them that they needed someone to take Judas’s place, what did they do?

And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”—Acts 1:24–25

2. When they had their first experience of persecution together, what did they do?

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

     “‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
     and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
     and the rulers were gathered together,
     against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 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.—Acts 4:23–31

3. When they appointed official servants to help with the needs of the congregation ...

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.—Acts 6:3–6

4. When the full inclusion of the Samaritans into the body needed confirmation ...

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.—Acts 8:14–17

5. When Peter was imprisoned and scheduled to be executed ... 

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.—Acts 12:12

6. When they were gathered together worshiping and fasting ...

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.—Acts 13:1–3

7. When new church plants needed pastoral leadership ...

And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.—Acts 14:23

8. When Paul had to leave the Ephesian elders and entrust them to the work of ministry ...

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.—Acts 20:36

It is no understatement to say: “Every great decision in the apostolic period, and in the whole life of early Christianity, is sustained by persistent prayer.”¹

But it would be a mistake to think that prayer only became a reality when they were faced with an important moment or decision. The same word for “devoted” in Acts 1:14 shows up again in Acts 2:42.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Prayer is not something they turn to at certain times. It is something they do all the time. They devote themselves to it. But why? Jesus did not command them to pray. He commanded them to wait.

The answer is that Jesus modeled this life for them. They are just following the example and teaching of Jesus. Prayer is an essential part of the DNA of a Christian. Jesus modeled this kind of prayer (Luke 6:12). He told them they should pray always and not lose heart or give up (Luke 18:1). They saw his life. He prayed at his baptism before the Spirit came upon him (Luke 3:21–22). He taught the same truth in Luke 11:13. If those who are evil know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask! Jesus spent the whole night in prayer before he chose the disciples (Luke 6:12–16).

Application

A father went sailing with his son. As they got the boat out in the open water, the son asked when the wind would come. The father said that he did not know. “What do we do while we wait?” the son asked. “Put up the sails,” the father replied. They can’t control when the wind blows, but they can prepare for when it blows.

The apostles are hoisting the sails and preparing for the wind. Why pray for something that has already been promised? One might turn the question around. How could you pray expectantly for something that has not been promised? The promises give us assurance in prayer that we are praying according to his will.

That is what I most want for 2020. If Bethlehem is a ship, then community prayer is collectively putting up the sails to be led by the Spirit in 2021. Let’s be devoted to it.

There are also things we can do to bring the sails down. We can grieve the Spirit and quench the Spirit. If you do the things you know are wrong, you are grieving the Spirit. If the Spirit is prompting you to pray, then the quickest way to quench the Spirit is to fail to obey an impulse to pray. Your flesh is not tempting you to pray. Satan is not trying to get you to pray. The Spirit is. If the wind of the Spirit is telling you he is about to blow, then get the sails of prayer up!

Conclusion/Communion

The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma demonstrates that social media engineers have made social media such that it does everything possible to keep your attention. They put a lot of time and attention and pressure upon us to keep us clicking and viewing and engaging. But their purpose is to make lots of money, not to make much of Christ.

The way social media works is so different from the way the Holy Spirit works. Social media tries to draw your attention to make lots of money. The Holy Spirit tries to capture your attention to make much of Christ. 

John 16:14 says that the Spirit will take the things of Christ and declare them. In so doing, Jesus says that the Spirit “will glorify me.” The Spirit has been called the shy member of the Trinity because the Spirit does not draw attention to himself, but to Christ. The Spirit shines the floodlight upon Christ. I love how J.I. Packer makes this point:

I remember walking to a church one winter evening to preach on the words, “He shall glorify Me,” seeing the building floodlit as I turned a corner, and realizing that this was exactly the illustration my message needed. When floodlighting is well done, the floodlights are so placed that you do not see them; you are not in fact supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained. The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize its dignity by throwing all its details into relief so that you can see it properly. This perfectly illustrates the Spirit’s new covenant role. He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior. Or think of it this way. It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, onto Jesus, who stands facing us. The Spirit’s message to us is never, "Look at Me; listen to Me; come to Me; get to know Me,” but always, “Look at Him, and see His glory; listen to Him, and hear His word; go to Him, and have His life; get to know Him, and taste His gift of joy and peace.”²

In 2021, let us give ourselves to the work of the Spirit as he shines the spotlight upon Christ.

_______

 ¹ Walter Grundmann, “προσκαρτερέω,” TDNT vol. 3, p. 618
 ² J.I. Packer, Keep in Step With the Spirit (1984), p. 66

Sermon Discussion Questions 

Main Point: Pentecost did not come because of the prayers of the disciples, but because of the Providence of God.

Main Picture: The disciples could not control the wind of the Spirit, but they could prepare for the wind by putting up the sail in prayer.

Discussion Questions

• Why does Acts 2:1 show that Pentecost did not come because of the prayers of the disciples, but because of the providence of God?
• What does it mean that they were all in one place? (Acts 2:1) How does this connect with what the disciples are doing in Acts 1:12–14?
• In Acts 1:14, what two words does Luke use to describe the way that the disciples prayed?
• The book of Acts shows that prayer was a constant refrain for the early church both in major decisions and everyday life. What were some of the texts or situations that give evidence for this pattern?

Application Questions

• What did your prayer life look like in 2020? What would it take to put up the sails of prayer more frequently in 2021?
• What are some of the major things that keep you from putting up the sails of prayer? What are some of the sins or struggles that cause you to grieve the Spirit or quench the Spirit and take the sail down?

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to put up the sails of prayer more as a pattern of life in 2021—both as individuals and as a church.