My Pulpit Message - notes Communal Prayer
My Pulpit Message Notes are extracted from the sermon preached at the Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC) Ngong Road on Sunday 29th May 2022. Preacher: Pastor Kaiza Ochola. Scripture: Acts 12: 5-17. Topic: Communal Prayer (The house of Mary) When one reads this tale, you can’t help but ask why? Why was Peter arrested? Why was James killed? Why were the Jews happy that James was killed?
Obviously this was never going to be the case when these people were redeemed, crossing over to the promised land. Instead of being a community and changing their people, the people around them changed them. That -To understand this you need to go back to the beginning when something great deceiver was still working, but Christ still persisted, still waited for His strange happened in this great city called Jerusalem. This community of people time to be born. were following this Man who at the time they thought He was just a man, but Through these people He was birthed in Bethlehem and anothHe turned out to be more than that. He turned out to be Elohim. He turned out er community when He grew up came to be. These twelve disciples who were to be Emmanuel (God with us). walking with Him. -So He dies a sure death. The death on the cross. They were certain that He died. They were grieving that He died. And He was buried in a tomb, but on the third day He rose again and they all got to see Him. Five hundred of them got to see Him, walk with Him, talk with Him, eat with Him, put their fingers in His wounds. They verified that this Man was dead and is now alive, but Jesus wasn’t done yet.
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Communities matter to God.
Today we have individualised our faith that our Jesus is just mine, but He doesn’t care about the people around me. My Jesus is just mine. When I come to worship, I want to hear great music, or when that pastor is preacher, it is for me. That Word is for me, but never do we look beside us and see the community that God has put you in.
It wasn’t just the resurrection that happened, but He told them, ‘Go wait for Me in Jerusalem and I will send you the Holy Spirit, for John bap- In Revelation we see that God was not speaking to individuals, but to tised with water, but I will baptise with the Holy Spirit’. churches there at that time. He wasn’t speaking to a pastor, or a prophet. When Jerusalem did not know what was coming and a wind came and He comes and speaks, He will speak to Nairobi Baptist Church. When He calls blew into the room. On their heads, each us out of our sin, He sill talk to NBC. one, were tongues of fire and the revivThose who gather as a community matPeter’s chains fell off. I wonder today, are there people you al began like nothing they had ever seen ter to God. That is the context in which have been believing to come to the Lord and you have been before. He is speaking to all of us, individually Three thousand men doing it alone. Don’t you know that when we come together we and as a community. were speaking in different dialects and are a force to reckon with? Don’t you know that your prayer everyone in that celebratory crowd that Acts 2:42-47, “42 They devoted was in Jerusalem heard them in their partner, you needed them and you didn’t know? That when we themselves to the apostles’ teaching own language and Peter was the chief to fellowship, to the breaking of come together in oneness and call to the Lord someone right and speaker in this first revival meeting. bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was now is in prison, in chains, surrounded and those chains are filled with awe at the many wonders And he spoke to them and what the inhabitants of Jerusalem and signs performed by the apostles. 44 going to fall. said at that time, ‘it cuts through the All the believers were together and had heart’. And that day three thousand were joined to them as believers. Jerusalem everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anywas never going to be the same again. The Jewish leaders had put to death Jesus, one who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple but they couldn’t squeal it. courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere Remember back in the day when Pharaoh tried to kill the sons hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord of the Jews? They grew even more. Even Herod tried to squash this, but they added to their number daily those who were being saved.” grew even more. So this is where the story began. This group of people who had seen amazing things and were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Law brought the Israelites together, but now the Law written in our What can we learn from this community? hearts makes us come together.
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The community of the believers. The context of the believers’ prayer. The conviction of the believers as they prayed.
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The community of the believers.
In the story of humanity’s redemption God has always used people. In the beginning He started with a family, but that old Lucifer, dragon who deceives people kind of usurped what God intended to do. The humans who were supposed to be harness the potential of the earth were now languishing in sin. But God persisted and found this other family, Abraham’s family and through them He grew. He made a promise to Abraham that through him all nations are going to be blessed and they grew. They went to Egypt because of a famine and they grew. And God used these people and got them out and was trying to communicate to Egypt through this people that ‘I am YAHWEH’ fear Me. Obey Me. Turn back to Me.
2. The context of the believers’ prayer. From the passage we do not know the content that the disciples were praying about. All that brother Luke writes is that there was a crisis that had come to the church. Herod wanted to please the Jews so he kills James and arrests Peter. We know that upon the arrest of Peter, the church prayed earnestly. We don’t know if they were praying for his release, or courage as he faces death. All that we know is that they prayed together for Peter continually, earnestly. They gathered in Mary’s home. They prayed consistently from the moment he was arrested to the moment that Peter came and knocked, they were still praying. They prayed openly welcoming all despite their socio-economic class. Rhoda the servant girl is the one who comes and opens the door and the Bible records that she was so excited that she recognised Peter and went back to tell the believers. I asked my husband who is a nerd for history, would a servant be able to talk to her boss the way Rhoda did and the answer was a sure no.
TT 154 | May 31st - June 6th| 2022
