As we have examined one example of Paul planting a church from the Book of Acts we have seen:
1> We must be sent by the Holy Spirit to where we are to plant the church. Apostolic means being sent and it is the Holy Spirit who sends us.
2> We saw that Paul’s first few converts were simply natural consequences of his prayer life and his habit of finding a quiet place to pray. He did not have a program of evangelism nor did he hold public meetings upon arriving. Let’s continue to story of Paul in Philippi.

Scene Four – The conversion of the jailer and his household: Although Paul and Silas were beaten and cruelly treated by their captors, “At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25). You know the rest of the story. There was a great earthquake, which caused the prisoners’ chains to fall off, and Paul was barely able to stop the hailer from killing himself. The jailer and his family were saved that night, but again this was not the result of a concerted evangelism effort. Instead, Paul and Silas were simply “praying and singing hymns to God.” Their focus at that moment was not on reaching people, but reaching God.

Scene Five – The church at Philippi is born: So far, it seemed that all Paul had done in Philippi was seek place of prayer and worship – and people somehow got converted along the way. But by the end of the chapter there was an amazing development: The church at Philippi had been born! As the chapter concludes, we are told, “They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed” (Acts 16:40).

Where did these “brethren” come from in the formerly unevangelized city of Philippi? Paul had conducted no crusades. There is no evidence that he found any synagogues to evangelize. Amazingly, The Lord touched hearts all along the way, giving Paul “divine appointments” as he simply pursued a place of prayer.

One of my favorite church-planting stories is found in Acts 16, the account of Paul’s apostolic journey and outreach to Philippi. How did Paul get started on his quest to reach Philippi with the Gospel? Did he schedule a crusade? Did he try to evangelize the synagogues, as he did in other places? Did he develop a cell-church network? No, Paul had a strategy that might seem highly unusual to us today? He prayed.

How could such a strategy work? Why not get right into the work of preaching the Gospel to the lost? Paul realized that, as E.M. Bounds would later point out, “Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men in even greater.” Paul knew that before organizing an outreach to people, he first needed to spend time agonizing before God. He understood, as J.C. Ryle has warned, “Never, never may we forget that if we would do good to the world, our first duty is to pray.” Judsom Cornwall expands on this: “God does not command to pray as a form of chastisement or disciple. Prayer is as necessary to spiritual life as scuba tanks are to the physical life of a deep-sea diver. Prayer is the atmosphere in which a human spirit can function comfortable. It is the breath of eternity so necessary to our eternal spirits that are confined in temporal bodies.”

Paul’s apostolic ministry in Philippi can best be observed in several distinct scenes:

Scene One: Paul’s leading to visit Philippi: A vital key to successful apostolic evangelism is ascertaining God’s direction. The body of Christ is called to take the Gospel into all the world, but individually we must know our specific sphere of ministry. Like the disciples who had fished all night and caught nothing, we need to know on which side of the boat to cast our nets.

Paul and his team originally intended to take the Gospel to Asia, but, “they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia” (Acts 16:6b). They changed course and tried to go into Bithynia, “but the Spirit did not permit them” (Acts 16:7b). It must have been baffling to face those closed doors, yet it wasn’t long before The Lord had shown Paul where he was to go:

“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that The Lord had called us to preach the Gospel to them.” (Acts 16:9-10)

We might not experience as dramatic a “Macedonian call” as Paul received, but we too need a clear sense of the Lord’s direction for our ministry. Apostolic people are “sent ones,” but we need to know where God is sending us.

Passionate and persistent prayer is what is needed as the local church becomes apostolic in nature. When an assembly takes seriously the apostolic commission to “send” their people into the world to make disciples it will require much persistent and passionate prayer.

This kind of passionate prayer is exhibited by Isaiah’s cry, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens! That you would come down!” (Isaiah 64:1a). Although apostolic prayer wants to see the lost saved and the kingdom of God extended, there is something it seeks even more: the manifest presence of The Lord. It years that He would rend the heavens and come down and fill the earth with His presence and glory. As E.M. Bounds once said, “The church on its knees would bring heaven upon the earth.”

Yet, tragically, Isaiah has to confess to The Lord just a few verses later: “There is no one who calls on Your Name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you.” (Isaiah 64:7a). While The Lord is waiting for us to call upon Him to rend the heavens and come down, few are willing to stir themselves to take hold of Him.

God made a similar observation to Ezekiel: “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.” (Ezekiel 22:30). Where are those today who will stand in the gap in behalf of the lost? Would The Lord have to again lament when looking for those who share His heart for the lost and are praying for both their salvation and for more laborers to enter into the harvest fields because the harvest is ready?

London pastor Charles Spurgeon once remarked, “Winners of souls must first be weepers for souls.” This is an echo of the words of the psalmist: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psalm 126:5-6)

There can be no genuine apostolic evangelism until we first have a passion for The Lord Himself. Apostolic evangelism is not a method, a formula, or an obligation – it is simply the obedient outgrowth of a vital relationship with God. The secret of reaching men is to the the living Jesus Christ and have the sending heart of the Father.

James Robison was a very popular Southern Baptist evangelist for many years. He prided himself on working hard to preach the Gospel in crusades from city to city. When speaking at a banquet one day, Robison boasted that he had preached for 55 consecutive days up to that point, often several times a day. At the end of his message, an elderly woman made her way up to the front in order to ask him a question.

“Brother Robison,” she stammered, “if you preach that often, when in the world do you find time to pray?”

Robison, who had a reputation for rudeness in those early days, looked squarely into her eyes and said, “Ma’am, that’s your job. You pray and I’ll preach.”

Even though Robison had quickly brushed aside her questions, to began to eat away at him. Over and over again, he played her question back in his mind, until he finally repented of his prayerlessness. He had to acknowledge that he was more in love with his ministry than truly in love with God.

Authentic apostolic evangelism is careful to stay centered around The Lord Himself rather than around ministry. It avoids the tendency to glorify toe ‘apostles’ and ‘evangelists,’ heeding the example of Paul the apostle: “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus The Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Corinthians 4:5)

When we become to message instead of Jesus, something is dreadfully wrong. At that point we have ceased to function in true apostolic ministry and are instead imitating the builders of the Tower of Babel, who openly acknowledged that their motive was to “make a name for ourselves…” (Genesis 11:4b) True apostolic evangelism is just the opposite, not drawing attention to our own story or ourselves, not seeking to be heard and known, not being the center of our message – but exalting the name and fame of Jesus Christ.

After the disciples had witnessed the amazing impact of Jesus’ prayer life, they were naturally curious about how they could have the same power in their own lives. They accordingly approached Jesus one day as He was concluding a time of prayer: “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of Hid disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.'” (Luke 11:1)

There are many other questions that the disciples could have asked: “Lord, teach us to share the Gospel,” or “Teach us to heal the sick,” or “Teach us to cast out demons.'” But there is no record of these questions ever being asked. Why not? Maybe because the disciples could see that Jesus’ prayer life was the secret to everything else He did.

If someone followed you around for a week or two, would they end up saying, “Wow, your prayer life is so awesome! Please teach me how to pray like that!” Unfortunately, many of us do not have a prayer life that would provoke anyone to envy. We want to do the supernatural works of Jesus, but we haven’t yet “prayed the price.”

As E.M. Bounds once pointed out, “The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time we give to it.” Can’t we see from the life of Jesus how important prayer is to a fruitful Christian life?

Those in the early Church seemed to have a clear understanding of the necessity of prayer in fulfilling their mission to reach the ends of the earth with the Gospel. What was the first thing they did after Jesus commissioned them and ascended into heaven? They gave themselves to fervent prayer: “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)

In response to their prayers, the Holy Spirit was dramatically poured out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-5). After 3,000 were saved that day, we are told they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). In Acts, chapter three, Peter and John were on their way to pray in the temple, and ended up healing a lame man. This resulted in an opportunity to preach to the amazed crowd that gathered because of the miracle.

Peter and John were arrested for their preaching after the lame man was healed- the Church prayed. When they were released the rallied the Church to pray all the more for opportunities to spread the Gospel. God answered their prayers in a rather spectacular way: “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)

We can see how prayer was the foundation for apostolic evangelism in the Church. Their witnessing was the product of more than a new church program or thew zeal of a few. The CHurch didn’t grow because of polished preached and dazzling buildings. Rather, their secret (not a well kept one either) was their zealous prayer.