CBOQ Assembly 2026 Review (Prayer) - Acts 3-4

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For the last few years, the Sunday after our annual Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ) Assembly, I've been taking a week to think about it, and then to summarize and to share the things that really landed for me. 

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There's an interesting thing that pastors sometimes say when we're talking about prayer in our congregations: prayer can be a tough sell.  

It can be tough for a pastor to get a congregation excited about prayer, especially getting people to pray together. People just don't seem to get excited about prayer.  

I really wonder why that is true. It was not true for the first generation of believers who we encounter in the book of Acts. They were excited about prayer. 

Today, we have our reasons for not resonating with the idea of getting together to pray, or of dedicating time each day to talk to God. We say, well, that was centuries ago. They did things differently then. They didn't understand the world the way we do. They didn't have the resources that we have. They weren't as busy as we are.  

We look around at our churches and we think, we do things differently today than they did way back then. We have different music, we have different architecture, we have different kinds of worship services. So we don't approach prayer the same way. 

We might even go so far as to say that we don't need prayer as much as they did. In the 28 chapters of the book of Acts, there are at least 21 times when Luke, the chronicler of those early days of the Church, writes the words, “They prayed.”  

Praying together was their starting point for everything—not a last resort or an afterthought. This was not, ‘Well, we've tried everything, I guess we might as well pray.’  

Prayer was step one. For every decision, for every journey, for every departure.  

These are words we spoke together at Assembly this year: 

They prayed when they gathered.  

They prayed when they parted.  

They prayed on the shore.  

They prayed in homes.  

They prayed before sending leaders.  

They prayed through tears, uncertainty, courage, and hope.  

They entrusted one another to the lord.  

They commended the church to the word of God's grace.  

They released one another into the mission of God.  

Acts people prayed everywhere, at the drop of a hat, no matter what had just happened, and no matter what was about to happen.  

They prayed.  

So should we. 

As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. Acts 4 v23

 The story told by Luke in our scripture focus begins with Peter and John on their way to the prayer meeting at the temple. The story ends with the Church at prayer.  

When they heard [Peter and John’s] report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God... Acts 4 v24 

In other words... ‘Then they prayed.’ 

Their first response to Peter and John's experience was to pray together. I can't entirely put myself in their shoes because this was a very small, vulnerable group of people. They were on the back foot because they had no power. They did not have a ‘persecution complex;’ their lives were genuinely at risk.  

And now, O lord, hear their threats... Acts 4 v29 

It was not long after this event that those threats were made good. Stephen was stoned to death for speaking about Jesus. John's brother James died by the imperial sword for speaking about Jesus. So on the day when those threats were first spoken, when that cloud first arose over that small group of vulnerable people, what did they do? They prayed.  

What did they pray for? What did they ask God for?  

Did they say, ‘O God, we are in danger. We are being threatened, so we pray for safety.’ 

‘O God, we're being threatened by people who have power over us, so we pray for privilege so that we can change the laws to turn this into a Christian nation.’ 

‘Lord God, we are under threat, so we pray that you will protect our right to freedom of speech.’  

Not even close. 

They prayed, 

And now, O lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.  Acts 4 v29  

They knew they had one job to do: to love people in the name of Jesus.  

Their first response to trouble was not to ask for that to be easy. Their first response was to ask God to make them brave.  

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Prayer is our conversation with God. One of our speakers this week gave us this quote:  

Prayer is an awesome and humbling honour that we should never take for granted.  

Meditation can be a good and helpful thing, but prayer is not meditation. Nor is it wishful thinking.  

Prayer is conversation with the infinite: with the all-knowing, the all-powerful, the all-loving, the all-present God.  

Yes, he's invisible. And you know what? I'm over it.  

Yes, we seldom hear his voice answering in the way we wish we could hear.  

Yes, sometimes prayer feels like talking to myself.  

But you know what? Do it anyway. 

Yes, the person that we are conversing with is so much bigger and so much stronger and so much more awesome and incomprehensible than we can wrap our tiny minds around.  

Yes, sometimes prayer feels like having a conversation with a rolling freight train.  

But you know what? God is not a freight train. God is alive, and he's listening, and he's inviting us along for the ride.  

Yes, prayer can be challenging.  

But you know what? It's not an option. Jesus prayed. The apostles prayed. The first believers prayed.  

Prayer is a conversation, and without conversation, any relationship will die.  

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Here are three questions to consider as you pray: 

First: will you listen?  

Sometimes our prayer flows from the heart, a tremendous gush of pain or fear or joy or gratitude as we talk and talk and talk to God. But will we listen? Because a conversation goes both ways, and sometimes we need to stop talking. When we do, when we stop to listen, do we just listen for what we want to hear? Are we just listening for our confirmation bias: for what we expect to hear? Or are we listening for what Holy Spirit is actually saying, whether we necessarily want to hear it or not?  

Second: will you obey?  

Sometimes the answers we get to prayer lead us into green pastures and by quiet waters. That can be a great gift.  

But sometimes the answers lead us into what one speaker called “holy trouble.” Just ask Peter and John what that looked like. Just ask Stephen and James. Holy trouble can be the most glorious thing when we see what God does in the midst of it. Will we listen to the voice of fear—to the threats—or to the voice that calls us to boldness?  

Third: who will we be?  

As I said, the event in our scripture focus begins with John and Peter going to a prayer meeting, and ends with the Church gathered for a prayer meeting.  

Throughout the story, we see different examples of how people respond to what God is doing among them.  

The first name that we want to look at for an example is the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  

But Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” Acts 3 v6 

He is our example in so many ways, but we have to remember that we are not anybody's saviour.  

We may find ourselves led by and connected to the examples of Peter and John—just being Christ-like servants who listened to the voice of the Spirit. They were on their way to church, but they were interruptible enough to stop and to do what they were told to do and to say what they were told to say.  

Peter looked directly at him, as did John. “Look at us!” Said Peter. Acts 3 v4 

We might look to the example of the people who witnessed the miracles, some of whom might, for their whole lives, have walked past this disabled man not stopping or looking twice. Some might have, for decades, given him a few coins. But on that day, as they walked into the temple, the man who had sat powerless: 

...He went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God. Acts 3 v8 

We might learn from the example of the religious leaders, who resisted and rejected the message that would shake them loose from their assumptions and their traditions and their preferences. Shake them loose from their comfort zone. And because they wanted to stay comfortable and safe, they totally missed out. 

Then they called [Peter and John] in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  Acts 4 v18  

Or we can follow the example of the unnamed man who took Peter’s hand, and stood. 

Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Acts 3 v7-8 

That man had the courage to ask for something, and he got so much more! He stood. He walked. He danced. 

I need, sometimes, to be a recipient of grace. I need, sometimes, somebody to remind me: to reach their hand down to me, and to tell me, ‘In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, take a step.’ 

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So this is my challenge for us as the church, and as individual believers: you know that old saying, ‘Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it?’ 

Well, be careful what you pray for. Because you just might get it.  

• If you pray for nothing, you just might get it.  
• If you pray for boldness, you just might get it.  
• If you pray for healing, you just might get it.  
• If you pray for wisdom, you just might get it.  
• If we pray for our church—if we pray for this church on this street corner in this town— 
• If we pray for a church that is alive and growing.  
• If we pray for a church that is caring and sharing and welcoming and giving back to our community. 
• If we pray for each other.  
• If we pray for unity. 
• If we pray for empathy with the person in the seat next to us: 

If we pray for our church to be what Christ intended our church to be, we just might get it.